Parthiv and AB guide Bangalore home

Cricket365
April 19, 2014

The Bangalore Royal Challengers recorded their second straight win in the IPL, but made life tough for themselves and needed Parthiv Patel and AB de Villiers to secure the eventual seven-wicket win against Mumbai.

The RCB bowlers did a sterling job with the ball, restricting the defending champions to just 115 for nine in their 20 overs. Bangalore then made a hash of their chase early on, before the two wicketkeepers put on a stand of 99.

Bangalore won the toss and chose to field, and it was a wise decision. Despite some shocking dropped catches, both sitters, Virat Kohli's men were brutal with the ball, with Mitchell Starc, Varun Aaron and Yuzvendra Chahal taking two wickets each.

The top Mumbai batsman was Ambhati Rayudu, though he could only made 35 off 37 balls before De Villiers took a great running catch off Starc to remove him. Otherwise, three others got into double figures, but none made more than 20.

The chase should have been easy, but early wickets gave the men in red a bit of a scare. Kohli and Yuvraj Singh, heroes of the first match, were both out for ducks, while opener Nic Maddinson, in for the injured Chris Gayle, was bowled by Malinga for 12.

This left Parthiv and De Villiers to join forces with the score on 17/3. De Villiers was the more sedate batsman, guiding his less experienced partner and letting him play the strokes. Patel was on 57 off 45 at the end, while De Villiers was on 45 not out.