Cricket Blog

Chris Gayle’s unbeaten (82) has once again proved why he is known as hitter on whom the team can trust on. This has once again proved by helping the team to win against Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets at Wankhade Stadium.

Gayle along with Virat Kohli (36) put on 94 runs stand by which the Royal Challenger had an easy win.  By this win, Royal Challengers Bangalore has jumped to fourth place in the IPL standing.

Chasing a small target of 142, Chris Gayle opened up with Tilakaratne Dilshan (19) but the later could stay at the crease for long time. But Gayle was in full form by hitting 6 sixes and 5 boundaries which made an easy run chase.

Also Virat Kohli hit couple of sixes in which the winning six is also included. No bowlers were left unbeaten from Mumbai Indians.

Earlier, Mumbai Indians batting struggled immensely. With only Dinesh Karthik (44) scoring highest run no other batsmen could contribute to raise the score.

Kieron Pollard (21) and Harbhajan Singh (20) together shared 41runs partnership. Last match hero Dwayne Smith (2) also couldn’t contribute much on the score. Muttaih Murlidharan (2-24) Harshal Patel (2-24) both took couple of important wickets.

Harshal Patel took a simple return catch of Sachin Tendulkar which was a big blow for Mumbai team. Pacer Vinay Kumar gave Royal Challengers an early breakthrough by picking Rohit Sharma (0) James Franklin (1) in the second over.

Bangalore made three changes by including Saurabh Tiwary, Vinay Kumar and Harshal Patel.

Squad:

Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Saurabh Tiwary, Mayank Agarwal, Syed Mohammad Jamaluddin, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Harshal Patel, Muttiah Muralitharan