RCB's woeful run continues

Rohit slams unbeaten fifty as Mumbai go on top with five-wicket victory

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Royal Challengers Bangalore made three more changes in their bid to arrest their free slide but once again ended up at the wrong end of the result.

AB de Villiers (43, 27b, 3x4, 3x6) showed signs of returning to his devastating best while Pawan Negi (35, 23b, 1x4, 3x6) produced some big hits towards the end to propel RCB to a competitive 162/8 after Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat against Mumbai Indians during their return-leg of IPL-10 here at the Wankhede on Monday.

Having prised out an in-form Parthiv Patel with the first ball of the chase by Aniket Choudhary, RCB raised hopes of a rare win every now and then with crucial breakthroughs but skipper Rohit Sharma stood firm to take hosts past the victory line (165/5 in 19.5 overs). The win almost confirmed Mumbai’s place in the play-offs.

This was Mumbai’s eighth win in 10 matches and they go to the top of the table with 16 points while RCB slumped to their eighth defeat in 11 matches.

After Parthiv’s dismissal Jos Buttler and Nitish Rana plundered 61 runs for the second wicket in 44 balls to keep Mumbai in the hunt. Even as the home team kept the score board moving, they kept losing wickets as well. Negi, who was impressive with the bat, was even better with the ball with figures of 17/2 that brought the visitors back in the game. In a now-on now-off chase, Mumbai appeared in a spot when the equation read 25 off last 13 balls. Choudhary, however, sent down a wide off the last ball of 18th over and Hardik Pandya slammed a six off the resultant extra delivery to reduce the target to 18 off last 12. Not many teams lose from this position and neither did Mumbai.  
   
RCB began on the right note. Kohli’s strong words for the umpteenth time appeared to have had an effect on his batsmen as Mandeep Singh started off with three boundaries in the first two overs. But his stay was brief as usual.

Kohli himself was in belligerent mood, slamming Karn Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah for sixes over long-on fence. The right-hander, though, got out tamely against the run of play when he flicked a Mitchell McClenaghan’s slower one straight to Rohit at mid-wicket.  

While a promoted Travis Head failed to kick on, de Villiers was at his vintage best. Clearing boundaries with customary ease and peppering all parts of the park, the South African threatened an encore of his effort here in 2015 when he brought up his highest T20 score (133 n.o.). Left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya, however, had de Villiers’ number for the fourth time in as many innings – the right-hander top-edging another slog to short fine-leg after despatching one into the crowd only the previous ball. His departure was celebrated wildly both by Mumbai players and vociferous crowd.

Head had been dismissed already by the same bowler and his compatriot Shane Watson lasted a mere five balls before being cleaned up Bumrah. At 109 for five into the 14th over, getting to 150 seemed a difficult task for RCB before Negi (35, 23b, 1x4, 3x6) and Kedar Jadhav (28, 22b, 2x4) sprang a surprise. Negi clubbed Lasith Malinga for two sixes and Bumrah once as 54 runs came off 36 balls for the sixth wicket to push RCB total from being a mediocre one to a competitive score. Not big enough to keep the marauding Mumbai in check though.