Mumbai beat Bangalore for their first victory

 Bengaluru, April 19 

Sent into bat, Lendl Simmons and Unmukt Chand smashed strokeful half-centuries to power Mumbai Indians to an imposing 209 for seven and then Harbhajan Singh (3/27) weaved his magic to restrict RCB to 191 for seven.

Chasing an imposing 210 for a victory, RCB did not have the best of starts and kept losing wickets at regular intervals to hamper their cause.

In fact, the RCB’s chase heavily relied on an explosive start from Chris Gayle but it was not to be. Inspite of getting two lives, the West Indian cut a sorry figure scoring just 10 runs off 20 balls. Gayle got his first life in the second ball when he was dropped by Simmons off Mitchell McClenaghan and then in the eighth over he was dropped by Lasith Malinga. But the dropped chances did not have an adverse affect on Mumbai Indians as an off-colour Gayle perished in the ninth over when Harbhajan went through his defence.

RCB skipper Virat Kohli (18 off 18) too perished in search of quick runs, caught by Ambati Rayudu off McClenaghan in the 11th over. Wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik looked in good touch but he too faded away under the pressure of a stiff asking rate. He was caught by Unmukt off Lasith Malinga’s bowling. From there on, it appeared impossible for the RCB to chase down the Mumbai target but there was still some hope as long as AB de Villiers was there.

De Villiers smashed 41 off 11 balls before the pressure of mounting asking rate took a toll on him.  David Wiese (47 no) and Iqbal Abdullah (20 off 15) tried their best but to no avail. — PTI

Scoreboard

Mumbai Indians

LSimmons c Aaron b Chahal 59

P Patel b Wiese 12

U Chand c Kohli b Chahal 58

Rohit Sharma c&b Wiese 42

K Pollard c Chahal b Wiese 5

A Rayudu c Chahal b Wiese 0

Harbhajan run out (Bisla/Ahmed) 0

H Pandya not out 16

Extras (LB-4, W-13 ) 17

Total (7 wkts in 20 overs) 209

Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-119, 3-182, 4-188, 5-188, 6-192, 7-209

Bowling

I Abdulla 4-0-35-0

V Aaron 4-0-50-0

AN Ahmed 4-0-59-0

D Wiese 4-0-33-4

YChahal 4-0-28-2

Royal Challengers

C Gayle b Harbhajan 10

M Bisla b Harbhajan 20

V Kohli c Rayudu b McClenaghan 18

D Karthik c Chand b Malinga 18

AB de Villiers c Pollard b Bumrah 41

R Rossouw b Harbhajan 0

D Wiese not out 47

I Abdulla run out (Sharma/Pollard) 20

AN Ahmed not out 1   

Extras (lb 1, w 13, nb 2) 16

Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 191

Fall of wickets: 1-26 2-48 3-62 4-97 5-119 6-125 7-183  

Bowling 

MJ McClenaghan 4-0-43-1

L Malinga 4-1-35-1

Harbhajan 4-0-27-3

J Bumrah 4-0-39-1

H Pandya 3-0-37-0

KA Pollard 1-0-9-0

MOM: Harbhajan Singh