Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma led from the front with a polished 62 to help Mumbai to an easy six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore, in their IPL clash at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai yesterday.
After the early fall of Parthiv Patel, Rohit and Ambati Rayudu, who came first down, played with a calm head on their shoulders to resurrect the
innings.
The pair stitched a 76-run stand for the second wicket. Rayudu perished trying to up the ante.
Rohit followed soon after. Jos Buttler (28) and Kieron Pollard (40 not out) then took them home with 12 balls to spare.
Pollard landed crunching blows by thwacking Richardson for a couple of sixes in the 17th over. It was a forgettable day for the RCB bowlers as they were plundered to all corners of the ground.
The second-wicket stand of 76 in 55 balls laid the groundwork of the chase, before Iqbal Abdulla gave Royal Challengers a new lease of life by dismisisng Rayudu and Rohit, both to slogs. Mumbai were at 109 for 3, needing 62 off eight overs. But by then, the chase was well into the home stretch.
Earlier, a rearguard 24-ball 37 by Travis Head helped Royal Challengers post a competitive total. Put in to bat, the visitors got off to a flying start, scoring 49 for the loss of one wicket after the completion of the mandatory six-over powerplay.
Opener KL Rahul took the initiative at the start, smashing two fours and two sixes in his 14-ball 23, but the right-handed batsman fell in the fourth over off the bowling of Mitchell McClenaghan to give Mumbai their first breakthrough.
But the wicket did not stop incoming batsman AB de Villiers (29) and captain Virat Kohli (33) from playing their natural game.
The duo, who in the previous season smashed an unbeaten 215-run partnership at this venue against the same opposition, made it look simple, piling on boundaries and sneaking in with singles and twos at regular intervals to bring up the 50-run partnership for the second wicket in just 35 balls and help the team reach 89/1 in 10 overs.
But the 11th over of the Bangalore innings saw a big twist in the game as off-spinner Krunal Pandya dismissed the in-form Kohli (caught at long-off) followed by the wicket of de Villiers (stumped) to bring Mumbai back into the game. Bangalore, after the two quick blows, were reduced to 93/3.
Incoming batsman Shane Watson (5) too didn’t last long. Trying to guide an outside the off-stump delivery to third man, he eventually got a thin edge which was grabbed well by wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel.
Next up, young Sarfaraz Khan (28) and Head held on to guide the team to 112/4 after completion of 15 overs. The right and left-handed batting duo played sensibly to struck a much-needed 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket in just 30 balls.
Jasprit Bumrah (3-31) and Krunal Pandya (2-27) were the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai.
Rohit Sharma was adjudged Man-of-the-Match for his 44-ball 62 that laid the foundation for Mumbai’s win.
“I think this is the kind of game we wanted to play. Bowlers did an excellent job, to restrict a team like that to 170. There wasn’t much in the wicket there… especially the spinners—Krunal Pandya, getting those wickets, even Harbhajan Singh.
“The things we discussed in our meetings, we executed it really well today. If you look at last year’s performance, there were hardly any batsmen in the top five (run-getters), which show it was a team effort.
“The way Buttler and Pollard played today, they are match-winners for their respective countries, we know exactly what they can do, and credit goes to Rayudu as well, he batted brilliantly in the middle,” the Mumbai skipper said in his post-match comments.
Mumbai seem to have got their campaign back on track after a disastrous start to the season—they have two wins and three losses now. Royal Challengers need to fix their bowling, and fix it quickly, if they hope to go the distance.

Scoreboard
Royal Challengers Bangalore
V Kohli c Southee b K Pandya   33 (30b)
KL Rahul c Singh b McClenaghan 23 (14b)
AB de Villiers st Patel b K Pandya   29 (21b)
S Watson c Patel b Bumrah 5 (10b)
T Head (run out)   37 (24b)
S Khan c K Pandya b Bumrah   28 (18b)
S Binny c H Pandya b Bumrah   1 (2b)
H Patel (not out)   0 (0b)
K Richardson (not out)   1 (1b)
Extras (b-1, lb-2, w-10)   13
Total (7 wickets, 20 overs)   170
Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-91, 3-93, 4-99, 5-162, 6-169, 7-169
Bowling: T Southee 4-0-25-0; M McClenaghan 4-0-46-1; J Bumrah 4-0-31-3; Harbhajan Singh 2-0-20-0; K Pandya 4-0-27-2; H Pandya 2-0-18-0

Mumbai Indians
R Sharma c de Villiers b Abdulla   62 (44b)
P Patel c de Villiers b Richardson   5 (6b)
A Rayudu c Richardson b Abdulla   31 (23b)
J Buttler c Watson b Abdulla   28 (14b)
K Pollard (not out)   40 (19b)
H Pandya (not out)   2 (3b)
Extras (w-2, nb-1)   3
Total (4 wickets, 18 overs)   171
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-82, 3-109, 4-140
Bowling: V Aaron 4-0-37-0; K Richardson 3-0-26-1; S Watson 4-0-40-0; H Patel 2-0-20-0; Iqbal Abdulla 4-0-40-3; S Binny 1-0-8-0