MI heap more misery on RCB to open IPL account

Bangalore: Mumbai Indians defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets to register their first victory in Indian Premier League (IPL) this season on Thursday.

After posting a huge total of 187/8 in their allotted 20 overs, Mumbai restricted Bangalore to 181/5 despite a heroic effort by AB de Villiers.

Bhumrah was the wrecker-in-chief as he took three wickets, conceding 20 runs in his four overs. Earlier, some valuable top-order contributions followed by Hardik Pandya’s blitzkrieg helped Mumbai Indians post a challenging 187/8 against Royal Challengers Bangalore even as leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal shined for the hosts with a four-wicket haul.

Mumbai were looking good with the scoreboard reading 52/0 after six overs, but Chahal’s arrival changed the scenario as the leggie returned with impressive figures of 4/38 before Hardik’s (32 not out off 14) cameo brought Mumbai back into the game.

Put into bat, the visitors were off to a decent start, thanks to skipper Rohit Sharma (48 off 33) and Quinton de Kock (23 off 20). However, as soon as Kohli introduced Chahal in the seventh over, the spinner removed de Kock to put breaks on the 54-run opening stand.

Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav then tried to stablise the Mumbai innings, adding 33 runs for the second wicket before Umesh Yadav delivered a major breakthrough by dismissing the well-settled Mumbai skipper.

It was then up to Yuvraj Singh and Suryakumar to put things back in control and the duo succeeded a bit, adding 37 runs.

Yuvraj, who tried his best to up the ante with a 12-ball 23, couldn’t stay long in the middle as Chahal applied brakes on the veteran’s inning with the Mumbai scoreboard reading 124/3 in 13.4 overs.

Before his dismissal, Yuvraj smashed Chahal for three consecutive sixes. However, the spinner had the last laugh.

Chahal looked unstoppable as he soon sent back Suryakumar for 38. The Mumbai middle-order then witnessed a collapse with Kieron Pollard (5), Krunal Pandya (1) and Mitchell McClenaghan (1) departing in quick succession with 147 runs on board after 17.1 overs.

However, Hardik’s lusty blows towards the end of innings helped the visitors post a fighting total.

Apart from Chahal, Umesh and Mohammed Siraj picked two wickets each.