A sublime all-round performance pushed the Royal Challengers Bangalore to poll position in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when they beat the Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in Mumbai on Saturday.

The Royal Challengers made easy pickings of Mumbai’s 151/9 after Jacques Kallis and Manish Pandey put on a splendid 85 runs in 59 balls for the first wicket.

Kallis continued his magnificent form, displaying a flawless mixture of brain and brawn as he pulverized the hapless Mumbai Indian bowling attack to all parts of the Brabourne Stadium.

Pandey was hardly pedestrian himself, scoring a fluent 40 runs off 27 balls, before he pulled a short delivery from Harbajan Singh to Kieron Pollard at mid-wicket.

Robin Uthappa followed with a brisk 23 off 15 balls and Virat Kohli simmered with a quick 17 off 11 balls, pushing the Royal Challengers to 136/3 after 17 overs and victory almost a certainty.

The Royal Challengers crossed the line with five balls to spare and seven wickets in hand.

It was once again Kallis who assumed the sheet anchor role for the Royal Challengers.

Kallis ended undefeated on 66 off 55 balls and leads the IPL batting stats with 264 runs in this year’s competition.

Earlier, in a game that was touted to be a possible run-fest between two excellent sides, turned out to be quite a challenge between bat and ball as the Royal Challengers ran through the Mumbai batting order to restrict them to 151/9.

After winning the toss, the Indians got off to a poor start when Sanath Jayasuriya was out lbw to Dale Steyn in the second over.

Steyn started his bowling spell with imposing venom, finding pace and swing from his opening delivery, as the Challengers sought to push the Indians on the back foot.

But it took an inspired bowling performance from Vinay Kumar who ran through the Mumbai Indians’ middle order with disdain.

Kumar took three wickets, including the prized scalps of a fluent Sachin Tendulkar (25 runs off 22 balls) and Dwayne Bravo (one run off two balls) in an inspiring over that turned the Indians’ innings on its head.

Kumar finished with 3/25 in his four-over spell.

Proteas all-rounder Kallis snapped up Aditya Tare for nine with a rising delivery and an enterprising partnership between Saurabh Tiwary and Tendulkar ended when Anil Kumble bowled Saurabh Tiwary for 25 .

A patient seventh-wicket partnership of 47 between Kieron Pollard and Rajagopal Satish saved the Indian innings that had been reduced to 76/6, as the pair inched their team towards a competitive total.

A superb cameo from Zaahir Khan (25 off nine balls) pushed the Indians total past the psychological 150 mark.

Veteran spinner Anil Kumble ended with 1/18 while Kallis finished off with figures of 1/35 in his four-over spell.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: ST Jayasuriya, SR Tendulkar (capt), AP Tare (wk), SS Tiwary, AT Rayudu, DJ Bravo, KA Pollard, R Sathish, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, SL Malinga

Royal Challengers Bangalore: JH Kallis, MK Pandey, RV Uthappa, V Kohli, R Dravid, EJG Morgan, MV Boucher (wk), P Kumar, A Kumble (capt), DW Steyn, R Vinay Kumar