Mumbai finally register win, beat Bangalore

The Mumbai Indians finally got a win to their name as they beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 16 runs at Port Elizabeth today. The Mumbai Indians won the toss and decided to bat first, and with this win go up to nine points.

The Mumbai Indians had a woeful start, as the very second over saw Vinay Kumar scalp the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, who edged one to the wicket-keeper without opening his account. Thereafter, Sanath Jayasuriya – who had been brought back into the side – was joined by Ajinkya Rahane and the duo started to consolidate. The typical Jayasuriya shots like the cuts and the pulls had returned, where as Rahane smashed one for six off A. Mithun.

Post the six over mark, only seven runs came in the next two overs, and Jayasuriya was then dismissed Reolf Van der Merwe; Lbw off a straighter one. That, unfortunately was all the success that the Royal Challengers got for the inning. Rahane and the new comer J.P.Duminy began in a sedate fashion and collected the singles and twos to prop the score up to 92/2 in 14 overs. Mithun’s 15th over finally saw a shot in anger as Duminy swat a short ball for a six. That was the sign of Mumbai’s intent to come and they hit a six in each of the next two overs.

Anil Kumble was then hit for nine runs, and then the inexperienced Mithun went for 14 in the last over of the inning to have the Mumbai get to 157/2 in 20.

Bangalore’s start was modest, but once they began losing wickets, it was a madhouse. Kallis was caught by Dhawal Kulkarni off Dwayne Bravo at 23 in the fourth over, and this was followed Robin Uthappa to reduce them to 30/2.

Virat Kohli, who had opened the inning with Kallis, was snapped up by debutant Chetanya Nanda, while Rahul Dravid failed again to leave the Royal Challengers tottering at 58/4. Ross Taylor dod add a few runs, but when he was gone at 73, the Royal Challengers were looking up against the barrel.

Mark Boucher was the only recognised batsman left and he did his best to smash a few over the fence, but the likes of Bravo, Malinga and Harbhajan Singh bowled very good spells to allow minimal damage. In the end, 32 were needed off the last over, and the Royal Challengers went down fighting.

Duminy was declared the man-of-the-match.