Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 37-ball 56. (Source: IPL)
Rohit Sharma, who had struggled to score runs in the first half of the IPL 2017, showed Mumbai Indians the way in a tricky chase, hitting an unbeaten 37-ball 56, as his team beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in Mumbai on Monday. (Results | Fixtures | Points Table)
The Mumbai captain used all his experience to pace his innings and that of his team on a slow Wankhede pitch as Bangalore kept themselves in the game until the last two overs. After the loss, Bangalore have no chance of making it to the playoffs while Mumbai moved to top of the points table with their eight win in the 10 matches.
The chase should not have been that difficult for Mumbai but Pawan Negi, who also shined with the bat, took two wickets for 17 runs to give Bangalore something to fight for. The start was not great for Mumbai as Parthiv Patel fell in the first over. But Jos Buttler and Nitish Rana scored together 61 runs before Negi removed them in quick succession.
But Rohit was cool under pressure, even after the wicket of Kieron Pollard. Mumbai needed 49 runs off 30 balls and Karn Sharma was at the crease with Rohit. Only one more wicket fell before Rohit completed his half-century and then the win for his team.
Bangalore, after winning toss and electing to bat first, lost regular wickets and fell short of a desired target on slow Wankhede pitch. They once again changed their opening pair by bringing Mandeep Singh to top of the order and pushing Travis Head down.
Virat Kohli looked his typical self and stroked his way to 20 runs before Mitchell McClenaghan produced a slower one to have him caught at mid-on.
AB de Villiers returned to his old self and smashed a 23-ball 43 to help Bangalore in the middle overs. But the South Africa once again fell to Krunal, for the fifth time in IPL.
The star with the ball, Negi, hit a 27-ball 35 with bat to give Bangalore something to defend as the team posted 162 for the loss of eight wickets.
But McClenaghan, who has had an impressive IPL, and company were at the top of their game to pull off a good bowling performance.
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