IPL 2013. Mumbai arrived in the 20th
over only three wickets down, and needing 10 runs for victory, but a
double-strike from Kumar, early in the over, brought two new batsmen to
the crease, and mounted substantial pressure on the visitors. Kieron
Pollard got on strike for the first time, with eight runs needed and
only two balls remaining and though he struck his first ball for a four,
which would have been a six, but for one inch, he could only dig out
the perfect yorker Kumar delivered on the last ball as far as long-on.Royal Challengers' victory had been set up earlier in the match by a
Chris Gayle IPL classic. His unbeaten 92 from 58 balls helped his side
overcome a pedestrian start, and launched them to 156 for 5. After
Gayle, the next highest Royal Challengers score was 24, from Virat
Kohli.Gayle's lone hand began with uncharacteristic reticence, as the Mumbai
seam bowlers, led by Mitchell Johnson, found bounce and movement on the
grassy Chinnaswamy Stadium surface that had compelled Ricky Ponting to
bowl first. The six Powerplay overs saw the fall of two batsmen and
yielded only 31 runs, with Gayle having made four of those, from 10
deliveries. In fact it was not until the ninth over that Gayle showed
any aggressive intent, when he clipped Jasprit Bumrah through the leg
side, before clearing his leg and drilling a full delivery into the
sightscreen, next ball.He rarely eased up thereafter though, hitting 11 fours and five sixes in
his innings, as his teammates continued to flounder around him. Pollard
came in for conspicuous punishment in the 11th over, disappearing for
15, never to see the bowling crease again, while Munaf Patel's final
over went for 16.Mumbai's reply was promising at the outset, as Sachin Tendulkar and
Ricky Ponting - opening together for the first time - hit 50 runs
together in just over seven overs. But despite that solid foundation,
Mumbai's top order was unable to lower the asking rate for much of their
innings. Mumbai had Pollard padded up in the dugout, and while Dinesh
Karthik, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu allowed the pressure to escalate
through a meandering approach during the middle overs, Pollard was not
promoted up the order to induce the dash Mumbai required to win the
match.
Royal Challengers Bangalore 156 for 5 (Gayle 92*, Bumrah 3-32) beat Mumbai Indians 154 for 5 (Karthik 60, Kumar 3-27) by two runs
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