IPL 2012: Mumbai Indians stun RCB by 5 wickets

Live updates of the IPLT20 encounter between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.

Suyash Srivastava

Bangalore: Before this match, Mumbai Indians had never been beaten at the Chinnaswamy Stadium by Royal Challengers Bangalore. And the record remained intact due to a spectacular match-winning partnership between Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard who added 122 runs for the sixth wicket that demolished Royal Challengers Bangalore on their home ground. Scorecard » I As it happened»I Points table » Chris Gayle began the innings on a careful note as he played five dot balls off Munaf Patel’s first over but smashed him for a six off the last ball. Gayle charged down the wicket in the second over but failed to connect the ball with the bat. The Jamaican was dismissed in the third over as an inside-edge crashed onto the stumps. Just a ball later, skipper Virat Kohli was run-out due to some terrific fielding by Gibbs at point. After those two losses, Dilshan along with Saurabh Tiwary added 36 runs for the third wicket before Tiwary was out hit-wicket. The man in-form for Bangalore, AB de Villiers couldn’t do much to rescue his team and he was out after scoring 14 runs. Bangalore were reeling at 87/4 and as batsmen continued to perish, 22-year-old Mayank Agarwal looked very confident from the start of his innings and he kept scoring boundaries every now and then. At the end of 18 overs Bangalore had managed to score 134 runs and they were up for a low score. But Mayank Agarwal scored a boundary and a six from the penultimate over bowled by Malinga and accelerated the innings to 147. But it was Munaf Patel’s final over which changed the atmosphere of the crowd and Bangalore dugout. Mayank smashed two boundaries and two sixes in the last over which produced 24 runs and the home team reached a challenging total of 171 runs. Mumbai Indians got off to a bad start as Tendulkar was dismissed in the first over for a first ball duck. There was a short cover put in place for Tendulkar and the Little Master played one shot straight into the hands of Virat Kohli. Hershelle Gibbs who scored an unbeaten half-century in the last match was run out in the next over. Mumbai’s last match hero, Rohit Sharma too perished for just 5 and Mumbai slumped to 51/5 in no time. The crowd at the Chinnaswamy Stadium knew that their team was back in the game and so did the Royals. But Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard displayed some of the finest hitting we have seen in this IPL so far. They mostly dealt in singles but did not miss to punish the poor balls. Whenever the run-rate soared, they managed boundaries at crucial intervals. There was a hindrance in the game in the 11th over as the one of the light towers went off. Just before this over, Pollard was back in some form as he clobbered Appanna for two consecutive sixes off the last two balls of his first over. The break however did not hamper the momentum of Pollard who stunned the home team with his big blows in the last over which also sealed the victory for Mumbai Indians. With this emphatic victory, Mumbai reached to the second spot in the points table with 18 points. The Royal Challengers Bangalore moved down to the fifth spot and the loss today has reduced their chances of making to the playoffs.