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Bangalore: Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in the IPL 2016 contest in Bangalore on Wednesday.
With this defeat, RCB now need to win all their remaining matches to stay in contention for play-offs.
Thanks to Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler’s late rampage.
The onus was then on Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu to steady the MI ship. They stitched up a 58-run partnership before Rohit holed out a back-of-length ball to AB de Villiers at long, in the pursuit of scaling up the run-rate. The newcomer Nitish Rana failed to provide impetus and was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal on 8.
Despite losing wickets, Rayudu kept the scoreboard ticking and played a cautious 44-run innings to keep MI’s hopes alive. However, de Villiers took a blinder of a catch to send Rayudu back to the pavilion and kept RCB in the hunt.
MI needed 50 off the last 4 overs, with Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler in thick of the action.
Kohli went to his go-to bowler Shane Watson for another breakthrough. But Pollard went on rampage and plundered 17 runs off it and changes the equation of the match.
To add more fire, Jos Buttler grabbed the RCB bowlers by their collar and scythed 29 runs off just 11 balls to take MI to the 4th spot in the points table.
Earlier, Lokesh Rahul scored an unbeaten 68 to take Royal Challengers Bangalore to 151/4.
Rahul slammed four sixes and three fours in his unbeaten knock and was ably assisted by Sachin Baby (25*) as the pair put up an unbroken 53-run stand off just 27 balls for the fifth wicket.
Kieron Pollard conceded 23 runs off the 18th over as both Rahul and Baby tore into the West Indian who was hit for three sixes and a four in the over.
Rahul continued his great form and hit his fourth half-century of this IPL season reaching the milestone off 42 balls. Baby smashed two sixes and two fours in his unbeaten 13-ball 25 to lend respectability to the Bangalore total who were looking in a spot of bother at 98/4 in 15.3 overs.
Put in to bat, Bangalore got off to a woeful start losing their captain Virat Kohli (7) on the first ball of the second over when Mitchell McClenaghan had him caught by Harbhajan Singh at an unusual deep third slip position. Chris Gayle registered another failure on his comeback falling to Tim Southee caught by Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma after scoring just five runs.
AB de Villiers added 43 runs with Rahul for the third wicket, hitting a six and a four in his 27-ball 24 before he was caught by Ambati Rayudu at deep mid-wicket off Krunal Pandya.
Rohit ran out Shane Watson with a direct hit from mid-off just when the Aussie was starting to cut loose having hit a six and a four in his 14-ball 15, in the process adding 38 runs for the fourth wicket with Rahul.
Brief scores
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 151/4 (Rahul 68*)
Mumbai Indians - 153/4 (Rayudu 44, Pollard 35*, Aaron 2-37)
Result - Mumbai Indians won by 6 wickets
