Mumbai Indians [MI] defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore [RCB] despite losing their first four wickets with just seven runs on the board at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.
Chasing a modest target of 143 to win, the Mumbai-based franchise were undone in spectacular fashion by West Indies spinner Samuel Badree who picked up the first hat-trick of the 2017 season of the Indian Premier League [IPL].
Badree first dismissed Parthiv Patel before the move to send Mitchell McClenaghan up the order failed as the Kiwi fell for a first-ball duck. Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma, facing the hat-trick ball, did not pick theBadree’s googly and was bowled for golden duck.
Rohit’s form will be an area of concern for MI as he has managed just nine runs from four matches so far in this year’s IPL.
Meanwhile, Badree registered bowling figures of 4-9, but international team-mate Kieron Pollard managed to survive the testing period before leading his side toward victory in stunning fashion.
After being reduced to 33-5, the pair of Pollard and Krunal Pandya patiently built a solid partnership before launching their attack. The duo added 93 runs for the sixth wicket, with Pollard top scoring with 70 from just 47 balls.
In the end, the visitors managed to complete the victory with four wickets and seven deliveries remaining.
Earlier in the day, after being put into bat, the hosts put on 142-5 from their 20 overs with Virat Kohli notching up a half-century in his first match of the season. The RCB captain scored 62 from just 47 deliveries.
The other Bangalore batsmen, however, struggled to get going despite a 63-run opening stand between Kohli and Chris Gayle. The West Indian opener would fall just three runs short of becoming the first man to the 10,000-run mark in T20 cricket.
AB de Villiers had a respite with Jos Buttler dropping him early on in his innings, but he didn’t look at his best during his 21-ball 19 as he fell to Krunal for the third time in as many innings against the left-arm spinner.
McClenaghan was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers, picking up two wickets for 20 runs from his four overs.
The Pandya brothers also bowled superbly, conceding just 30 runs from a total of six overs between them and picked up the important wickets of Gayle and de Villiers.
If there was one stat that would show RCB’s lacklustre batting performance, then it would be the fact that they did not score a single boundary in the last final five overs of their innings.
Unsurprisingly, Pollard was named the Man of the Match for his match-winning innings with the bat.
BRIEF SCORES
Royal Challengers Bangalore 142-5, 20 overs [Kohli 62, McClenaghan 2/20] lost to Mumbai Indians 145-6, 18.5 overs [Pollard 70, Krunal 37*, Badree 4-9] by four wickets.
Man of the Match – Kieron Pollard.
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