Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers added 91 runs runs for the third wicket as Royal Challengers Banaglore managed to set a modest target of 141 for the Mumbai Indians after being put into bat at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Tuesday.
Dilshan (59 not out, 52 balls, 4x4, 2x6) carried his bat through while De Villiers (38, 36 balls, 3x4, 1x6) scored some useful runs on a wicket where the ball wasn’t coming onto the bat. Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard got a couple of wickets each.
Malinga started from where he left against Delhi Daredevils. The very first delivery of the match was a toe-crusher, which former India colts player Mayank Agarwal (0) didn’t have any clue. There was some late swing before it the base of the off-stump.
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Virat Kohli (12, 19 balls, 2x4) who got a couple of boundaries wasn’t in his element as he failed to get going with both Malinga and Munaf Patel bowling tight opening spells.
Along with Dilshan, Kohli added 19 runs before Kieron Pollard, coming in as one change, dismissed him. As he was getting increasingly frustrated, Kohli decided to pull Pollard but his mistime pull-shot was taken by wicketkeeper Davy Jacobs who had to run back to catch the skier.
Dilshan and De Villiers couldn’t up the ante till the 13th over. Save occasional boundaries, both were content playing the singles and twos.
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It was in the 14th over bowled by Pollard that saw Royal Challengers Bangalore get 11 runs with Dilshan and De Villiers helping themselves for a boundary each. This over was followed by another from Harbhajan Singh that yielded nine runs.
The first six of the match came as late as the 16th one when De Villiers lifted left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza for a six over deep mid-wicket.
Finally Pollard had the last laugh when De Villiers’s aerial shot was taken by the bowler himself. It was difficult to understand why little known Asad Pathan (0) was sent ahead of Saurabh Tiwary (16 not out, 10 balls, 3x4). It was Tiwary whose lusty blows helped RCB score 28 runs in the last 2.3 overs.