Pollard leads Mumbai Indians to win despite Badree hat-trick

Bengaluru: Mumbai Indians managed to snatch a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore despite the visitors suffering an early set back in their chase from Samuel Badree’s hat-trick at Bengaluru on Friday.

Mumbai Indians then lost a couple of more wickets before Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya wrestled control back to their side and thus led them to a four-wicket-win.

Earlier in the match, Mumbai Indians managed to stifle the home side to making just 142 runs for the loss of five wickets, with Virat Kohli’s half century being the standout performance.

Kohli ended up with 62 runs off 47 balls, hitting five boundaries and two sixes in his innings. But big hitters like Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers failed to make an impact for RCB.

The biggest highlight of the day, before the match began, was the return of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s skipper Virat Kohli to the side.

Kohli was returning after recuperating from a shoulder injury that he sustained during India’s third Test against Australia at Ranchi.

But it didn’t take long after RCB took the field for the spotlight to shift away from Kohli.

Mumbai Indians didn’t need to get off to a blistering start due to the low total that they were chasing and were taking their time in the middle to get going.

In the second over, they were dealt with an early blow in the form of opener Jos Buttler’s wicket.

Brief scores
Royal Challengers Bangalore - 142 for 5 (Kohli 62, McClenaghan 2-20)
Mumbai Indians - 145 for 6 (Pollard 70, Krunal Pandya 37*, Badree 4-9)
Result - Mumbai Indians won by four wickets