IPL
Mumbai thrash Bangalore
2010-04-17 20:31
Bangalore - The Mumbai Indians solidified their position atop the IPL standings as they thrashed the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 57 runs in their match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.
Bangalore, chasing Mumbai’s daunting score of 191 for four, never
looked like overhauling the total as they suffered a batting collapse
before stuttering to 134 for nine.
The win moves Mumbai to 20 points, six ahead of Bangalore who
hold on to second place on the log after completing their group
fixtures.
The heavy defeat has drastically altered Bangalore’s net
run-rate and they keep a close eye on the IPL’s remaining group
fixtures to see if they can hold on to their home semifinal.
Jacques Kallis (14) and Manish Pandey (16) provided Bangalore
with a reasonable start as their first-wicket stand produced 30 runs,
the highest of the innings.
However, Pandey was caught at mind-on off the bowling of
Dilhara Fernando before Kallis was bowled by Ryan McLaren to herald to
start of a slide that saw the home side lose seven wickets for the
addition of 77 runs.
Rahul Dravid (16) chipped a delivery from off-spinner Harbhajan
Singh to midwicket before the same bowler accounted for the dangerous
Kevin Pietersen (21) when the batsman sliced a ball to Saurabh Tiwary
at long-off.
Matters did not improve for the home side when Robin Uthappa
(4) smashed a delivery from medium-pacer Kieron Pollard down long-off’s
throat as Bangalore slumped to 74 for five.
Virat Kohli was the only other batsman to reach double figures
as he top-scored with 37 before he became the eighth wicket to fall
when he skied a delivery from Pollard to keeper Aditya Tare.
Pollard finished the match with three for 28 while Fernando and
Harbhajan returned figures of two for 24 and two for 28 respectively.
Earlier, a late assault from JP Duminy helped Mumbai to their final total.
Duminy thundered to 42 not out off 19 balls while smashing three fours
and three sixes and he particularly enjoyed the bowling of countryman
Kallis as the left-handed batsman thrashed 19 runs off the 18th over of
the innings bowled by Kallis.
Duminy’s fireworks ensured that Mumbai scored 39 off the last
three overs of their innings as he shared in an unbroken fifth-wicket
stand of 49 with Abhishek Nayar with Nayar contributing just nine runs.
The start of the match was delayed by an hour because of a bomb
blast outside the stadium and when play did get underway Bangalore
captain Anil Kumble won the toss and elected to field first.
After Mumbai had stuttered to 46 for one after eight overs the
right-handed Ambati Rayudu took the attack to the bowlers as he thumped
17 runs off the ninth over, bowled by seamer Pankaj Singh.
The 24-year-old batsman raced to 46 off 27 balls before he
skied a Kallis delivery which allowed the bowler to complete a
regulation caught and bowled effort.
Rayudu and Ryan McLaren, promoted up the order to open the
batting, had put on 69 runs for the second wicket off just 6.5 overs to
propel the visitors to 103 for two.
Pollard took up the challenge by thrashing 20 off seven balls
before being trapped leg-before by Kumble while McLaren eventually fell
for a patient 40 off 42 balls when he was out lbw to off-spinner
Pietersen.
Kallis ended with figures of two for 41 while speedster Dale
Steyn bowled impressively to finish with the economical figures of none
for 18 off four overs.
Teams:
Bangalore Royal Challengers: JH Kallis, MK Pandey, KP Pietersen, RV Uthappa (wk), LRPL Taylor, V Kohli, R Dravid, R Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh, A Kumble (capt), DW Steyn
Mumbai Indians: SR Tendulkar (capt), AT Rayudu, SS Tiwary, JP Duminy, R McLaren, KA Pollard, AP Tare (wk), Harbhajan Singh, AM Nayar, Z Khan, CRD Fernando