IPL 2018: Rohit Sharma's 94 upstages Virat Kohli's 92* as Mumbai open their account

IANS

Riding on captain Rohit Sharma's 94 off 52 balls, Mumbai crushed Bangalore by 46 runs to register their first win in four IPL 2018 matches on Tuesday.

Chasing 214 to win, Bangalore gave a poor account of themselves and could only go as far as 167/8 and suffered their third defeat in four matches. The visitors at the Wankhede Stadium lost Quinton de Kock and AB de Villiers in the fifth over and with those scalps their chase completely fell apart.

Bangalore captain Virat Kohli made 92 not out off 62 balls but in all honesty that only narrowed the margin of defeat. The thumping loss took the sheen of Kohli's feat of becoming the leading run-getter in IPL history.  Kohli overtook Chennai's Suresh Raina (4,558 runs) when he reached 32. Rohit was the next batsman in the list with 4,345 runs, followed by Gautam Gambhir (4,210) and David Warner (4,014).

Earlier, after outings of 15, 11, 18 in his previous three IPL 2018 matches, Rohit at last returned to form as he smashed Bangalore bowlers all over the park. The MI captain fell short of a century just by six runs off the fifth ball of the last over, breaking many fans' hearts in the stadium. 

Mumbai came into the match after three successive defeats and when Umesh Yadav cleaned up Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan off the first two ball of the match, another defeat stared the hosts in the face. 

However, Rohit had other ideas in mind. He and Evin Lewis added a blistering 108 runs in 11 overs to completely negate Bangalore's early advantage. However, he didn't do the bulk of the scoring in that partnership having chosen to play second fiddle with 32. 

But once West Indian Lewis departed for 65 off 42 balls, Rohit took centre stage and control of the innings. When Umesh returned for his third over, Rohit hit him for a six and a four off the first two balls to show him who was boss.  

Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard kept him good company as the Mumbai captain continued assaulting the Bangalore bowlers. He scored 24 in the 40-run stand with Krunal, 23 in the 30-run stand with Pollard and 15 in the 29-run partnership with Hardik Pandya.

Rohit eventually holed out to Chris Woakes at long-on in an attempt to hit Corey Anderon for another big shot having taken two fours and one six earlier in the over. Rohit hit 10 fours and five sixes and helped the hosts post a formidable 213/6.