Mumbai: Bangalore have managed to complete a convincing 7-wicket victory over Mumbai. Jacques Kallis led the charge for the visitors and got them off to a strong start alongwith Manish Pandey.
Royal Challengers Bangalore have made light work of this chase. Looks like whatever Kallis touches seems to be turning into gold at the moment. The kind of touch he is in, surely he can bat with his eyes closed.
Kallis and Pandey got them off to an explosive start and Uthappa carried forward the momentum after Pandey was dismissed trying to go for the big one. Uthappa and Kohli fell in quick succession but that didn't dent the chase one bit as Kallis steered them through to a comfortable win which takes them to the top of the league standings.
Mumbai would be disappointed with their effort in the field as they conceded easy runs in the power play overs and would be looking to erase these memories quickly before they take to the field in the next game.
"I thought we lost wickets at regular intervals and that put breaks on our accelerators. There were too many dot balls and we were 15-20 runs short. There is no need to panic at this moment and we need to trust our strengths and look at our weaknesses. Rayudu and Tiwary have been good. Pollard will fire at some point in time this tournament and he will meet the expectations", said Sachin Tendulkar
"It's really nice to play, I'm enjoying this format. "Old habits die hard" when asked about his fuming reaction when someone misfields off his bowling. When the conditions suit us, we need to make the most of it. We need to take it one game at a time. This is still a young man's game but I'm happy to do my bit to this", said Kumble.
Jacques Kallis is the Man of the Match for his match winning knock of 66
Rahul Dravid gets the Kamaal catch award.
Earlier, R Vinay Kumar is used to being among the top wicket-takers in Indian domestic cricket, and then watching others steal the spotlight - much like earlier this year when his state-mate Abhimanyu Mithun made his international debut ahead of him after just one season of impressive numbers.
On Saturday night, for a change, he grabbed the limelight by removing Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu in one over - benefiting in part from the pressure created by his team-mates' smart swing bowling, changes of pace, bouncers to Indian batsmen, and aggressive spin bowling by Anil Kumble and good opening spell by Test number one bowler Steyn.
Brief scores
Mumbai Indians: 151 for 9 (Vinay 3-25, Steyn 3-26)
Bangalore Royal Challengers: 155 for 3 (Kallis 66*, Pandey 40)
Result: Bangalore Royal Challengers won by sevent wickets