Mumbai Indians finally break through for first IPL victory

Sport360 staff 09:33 20/04/2015
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  • Living up to his potential: The highly talented Unmukt Chand finally came good for Mumbai with a half century.

    Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma heaved a sigh of relief as his star-laden side managed to win their first match of the new season when they travelled to Bangalore to beat Royal Challengers by 18 runs in a high-scoring match.

    At Chinnaswamy Stadium last night, Mumbai raced to a formidable total of 209 for seven – the highest total of the tournament so far – and then managed to restrict Bangalore to 191-7.

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    Mumbai’s deep batting came good in the match. Lendl Simmons, who top-scored with 59 in 44 balls, and Parthiv Patel put on 47 for the opening wicket. Thereafter, Mumbai consolidated through cameos from Unmukt Chand (58 in 37 balls) and Sharma (42 in 15 balls).

    And when they bowled, Mumbai owed it to their most experienced bowling duo of off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and paceman Lasith Malinga.

    Playing in his 100th IPL match, Harbhajan took three wickets in regular intervals giving away just 27 runs to plot Bangalore’s downfall. And when South African AB de Villiers (41 in 11 balls) and David Wiese (47 in 25) seemed to revive the home side, Malinga bowled a brilliant penultimate over giving away just eight runs to seal the fate of the match.

    Simmons and Chand added 72 runs for the second wicket, and skipper Sharma took over from there. The talented pair added 63 runs for the third wicket in just 25 balls. Chand smashed eight four sand two sixes, while Sharma’s 42 had three fours and four sixes.

    For RCB, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers, returning with respectable figures of two for 28 from his four overs, while debutant Wiese took 4 for 33.

    Bangalore opener Chris Gayle had two chances – including one on the second ball of the innings – but he never got going and struggled to 10 runs in 24 deliveries before he was clean bowled by Harbhajan.

    Captain Virat Kohli was the next to be dismissed, caught by Ambati Rayudu off Mitchell McClenaghan for just 18 runs when a lot more was needed and expected from him.

    De Villiers smashed three sixes and five fours in his 11-ball 41 before he was caught by Kieron Pollard off Jasprit Bumrah at long-on.

    Even after De Villiers was dismissed, Wiese and Iqbal Abdulla kept them in the hunt, but in the end, it was too much to expect from the tail-enders.

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