BANGALORE: Ambati Rayudu 81runs not out. And Kieron Pollard 52 runs not out. Pulled off an amazing chase on Monday evening as Mumbai Indians overcome an early implosion to gun down the 172 target they were set by Royal Challengers Bangalore.
After Mayank Agarwal firework lifted Bangalore to 171 in the rain-delayed 1st innings, Mumbai looked down for the count in their chase. They were 51-5 in the 9th over – with Sachin Tendulkar duck out. Herschelle Gibbs, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Dwayne Smith back in the pavilion – when Rayudu and Pollard got jointly, and refused to get out.
The pair added 122 in fewer than 12 overs for the 6th wicket, garnering their team a thrilling succeed that took the CLT20 Champions to 2nd place on the points table. Rayudu and Pollard began carefully, but augmented their approach as things hurtled towards a frenetic end. Pollard initiates the carnage by hammering succeeding sixes off left-arm spinner K.P. Appanna in the 11th over.
Still, 57 were needed from the final 4 overs when Zaheer Khan came on for his 3rd and was unceremoniously carted for 16. In the next, Rayudu tore into Vinay Kumar, a sequence of 6, 4, and 6 restructuring the equation somewhat in the favour of the chaser. Zaheer return for his last over – the penultimate of the match – and restricted the rampage duo to just nine runs, leaving 14 as the last-over target.
Gayle was entrusting with the blame of turning his arm over. Rayudu ran a single upfront, leaving the stage to Pollard, who flicked a wristy six, benefited from a chancy 4 and then pulled another 4to the mid-wicket fence to hand Mumbai a 5-wicket win, with two balls to spare. Earlier, Bangalore surmounts the cheap loss of its stars, Gayle and A.B. de Villiers, to post a healthy 171. The home team was struggling on 87-4 in the 12th over, before fantastic hitting by Mayank Agarwal pulled them up to a spirited total.
Agarwal whipped up a anger in his 30-ball 64 – his 1st IPL fifty – and provided the last flourish by massacre Munaf Patel for 24 in the last over of the innings The match was delayed by an hour due to rain, and soon after start Gayle played on to Munaf. More trouble followed for Bangalore when Gibbs, all of 38 years, engineered the run-out of Virat Kohli, who fell as greatly to the South African’s agility as to a mix-up and a slip on the turf.
The home team was 13 for 2 after 4, when Munaf single-handedly turned things just about by conceding a spate of free hits in a protracted over that leaked 21. But just as Tillakaratne Dilshan and Saurabh Tiwary were steadying the ship, the latter was hit-wicket as he trod on his stumps.Dilshan struggle to find the boundary and scored a sedate 47, and when de Villiers hit Pollard straight to Malinga, Bangalore were gone without anybody to give them a decisive push.
Or so we thought, until Agarwal unleash a deluge of big hits, taking his team from 134-6 to 171-6 in the space of 12 balls. Not even Malinga was spared as Agarwal crashed a 4 and 6 off the Sri Lanka paceman, and then waded into Munaf in the final over as Bangalore ended with a high, only to come crashing down when the Rayudu-Pollard combine outdid them in the middle.
Man of the match
Ambati Rayudu
