Mumbai hold their fortress in tense match

Cricket365
May 7, 2014

The Mumbai Indians continued their run of wins at the Wankhede, stretching back to 2012 and nine games, as they beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore in tense circumstances on Tuesday.

The match was marred by ugly scenes between Kieron Pollard and various RCB players, most notably Mitchell Starc, but also oddly with fellow West Indian Chris Gayle. In the end, the hosts prevailed, winning by 19 runs.

Mumbai batted after being put in by Virat Kohli, with the Bangalore skipper always preferring to chase. The defending champions, who had not won a single game in the UAE leg, wen ton to post 187 for five. RCB's chase ended on 168 for eight.

Mumbai's best batting efforts came from Pollard and Rohit Sharma, who joined forces to take the score from 84 for four to 181 for five, before Pollard was run out, amusingly by Starc. But before that, the pair had to be calmed by umpires and skippers after Pollard threw his bat.

It didn't go anywhere near the bowler but was still an unpleasant sight, and followed on from 'banter', backing away and bouncers. The thing that triggered the final straw, in the 18th over, was that Pollard cheekily walked away as Starc ran in, but the paceman bowled it anyway, following Pollard to the leg side.

As it was, Pollard and Rohit rescued the knock after the loss of early wickets, with Rohit ending on 59 not out and Pollard on 43 before departing in the final over.

RCB got off to a cracking start, with Gayle and PArtiv Patel putting on 53 runs in the first five overs. But then spinner Harbhajan Singh arrived to derail that, removing both openers, clean bowled four overs apart.

Otherwise, only Kohli and Rilee Rossouw made double figures, adding 35 and 24 respectively, as the Mumbai bowlers did the job admirably. AB de Villiers was not able to replicate his innings from earlier in the week, and was out for nine.

Adding insult to Starc's injury was that he was caught out by Pollard for five, while the Windies all-rounder also ran Yuvraj Singh out.

Mumbai now have two wins in seven, and sit on four points with three other sides that make up the bottom half of the table. RCB have six points and are hanging onto fourth place thanks to a good start in the UAE.