Bangalore Royal Challengers 140 for 4 (Dilshan 59*, Pollard 2-25, Malinga 2-32) by 5 wickets
Sachin Tendulkar, the controller, and Ambati Rayudu, the enforcer, made short work of the below-par target to give Mumbai their second successive win of the tournament. However, it was with the bat that Bangalore lost the game tonight. It was a strange innings as Bangalore were in consolidation mode for most of the time after they slipped to 19 for 2 and meandered their way to 140.
There was no such hesitation shown by Mumbai in the chase. Every time Bangalore tried a new bowler, Tendulkar and Rayudu lashed out. When Abhimanyu Mithun was introduced in the sixth over, Tendulkar showcased his gorgeous straight drive and Rayudu swatted a bouncer and creamed through wide mid-off. When Tillakaratne Dilshan came on in the 10th over, Tendulkar deployed the slog sweep and the conventional sweep to collect more boundaries. When Asad Pathan was brought in the 12th over, Rayudu crash-pulled the first delivery to midwicket boundary and when Virat Kohli returned for a second spell, in the 13th over, Tendulkar smote him to the straight boundary.
Mumbai's batsmen reserved their best for Zaheer Khan, whose awful night mirrored Bangalore's in many ways. Davy Jacobs flatbatted a stunning a six over long-on in the fourth ball of the chase and sandwiched fours over covers and long-off with a lovely whippy six over midwicket in Zaheer's next over. When Zaheer returned for a second spell, Rayudu cut him to point boundary, slammed a full toss to midwicket and lofted him to the long-on boundary.
Mumbai's approach couldn't have been more contrasting than that of Bangalore. Tillakaratne Dilshan hit a fifty but it felt like an imposter was wearing his jersey. AB de Villiers made 38 but never looked like he would hurt the opposition. "It's a difficult track to bat; there is spongy bounce and AB (de Villiers) and I thought 140 would be a good score," Dilshan said at the end of the innings. He couldn't have been more wrong, at least tonight.
The ball didn't appear to stop on the batsmen, there wasn't any alarming turn but they struggled to get going. Mumbai's night was set up by Lasith Malinga with a brute of a first ball. It was full, it was pacy and it curved away devilishly late to go past the stunned Mayank Agarwal and knock out off stump. Next, Malinga pinged Virat Kohli on the boot with another screaming yorker, but it was not given. Kohli fell soon after, top-edging his trademark on-side heave to the keeper. It was the beginning of the crawl.
Dilshan tried to punch his way out of trouble but rarely found the timing or the gaps. de Villiers also played within himself and the pair started concentrating on singles. de Villiers fell in the 17th over, top-edging a slog against Pollard and that paved way for Saurabh Tiwary to free his arms. He flat-batted Malinga over extra cover and heaved Harbhajan to cow corner. Dilshan woke up in the last over to slap Malinga for six over midwicket as Mumbai finished on a mini-high but it was too little too late.
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