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Bangalore, April 17: Table-toppers Mumbai Indians demolished the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 57 runs in their return match, of of IPL-2010 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here today. The Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians, who are already in the semi-finals, thus avenged their Mumbai defeat to firmly sit at the top of the table with 20 point.
The loss though could prove to be a huge setback of sorts for Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have now completed their league engagements with 14 points from 14 matches. The Royal Challengers Bangalore have seven wins and seven defeats from their fourteen matches, but stand on the edge, as both the Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils face-off tomorrow are also placed on 14 points a piece. With one of them winning tomorrow they would be assured of a Semi Final spot leaving Royal Challengers Bangalore competing with CSK and the others competing for a semi-final spot on superior run-rates.
Put into bat, the spirited Mumbai Indians rallied from a slow start to post an imposing 191/4 in 20 overs. The charge from the Royal Challengers Bangalore, however, caved in cheaply with Anil Kumble’s team making only 134/9. Skipper Sachin Tendulkar had a surprising new opening partner in pace bowler Ryan McLaren. But McLaren struggled against the tight bowling of Royal Challengers Bangalore. Tendulkar, who struck three fours in his 18-ball-19, was back in the pavilion in the sixth over. Jacques Kallis, who is in competition with Tendulkar for the top honours in batting, had the Mumbai Indians skipper caught at square-leg. McLaren was dropped twice and he went on to make a 42-ball 40. He was out in the 17th over, lbw to Pietersen.
The enterprising Ambati Rayudu (46 off 27 balls; 3x4, 4x6) indulged in some big-hitting today. He struck two successive sixes off Pankaj Singh and Anil Kumble before falling to the wily Kallis who took a return catch. The Rayudu-McLaren second wicket partnership realized 69 runs in 6.5 overs. The explosive Kieron Pollard played a whirlwind seven-ball 20, walloping three successive sixes off the hapless Pankaj Singh in the 15th over. But the canny Kumble stopped Pollard by having him trapped in front. The Pollard-McLaren partnership brought up 35 runs in 14 deliveries for the third wicket. Then left-hander Jean-Paul Duminy enlivened the proceedings with a quick-fire 19-ball 42 (3x4, 3x6) to blast the Royal Challengers Bangalore attack. Dale Steyn was outstanding with the ball as he stifled the batsmen with his pace turning in figures of 4-0-18-0. The tall Pankaj Singh, who was hit for four sixes, went for 54 runs in four overs. Kallis’ figures were spoilt by Duminy. He was hit for 19 runs in the 18th over.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore lost Manish Pandey (16) in the fifth over and Kallis (14) in the next over. Dilhara Fernando had Pandey caught at mid-on while McLaren castled Kallis. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh got rid of the reliable Rahul Dravid (16) and the home side was 58/3 in 9 overs. Kevin Pietersen (21) became Harbhajan’s second victim while Robin Uthappa (4) was out to Pollard (74/5 in 11.1 overs). Royal Challengers Bangalore went from bad to worse as they surrendered meekly. Ross Taylor could make only 9. Virat Kohli though batted valiantly for 24-ball 37. Harbhajan Singh (2/28) was economical and effective. Fernando (2/24) and McLaren were impressive in their first spells while Pollard (3/28) was the most successful bowler. The match got off to a delayed one-hour start because of two low-intensity blasts that took place in the wall adjacent to the gate no 12 of the stadium and at Anil Kumble circle. Four constables were injured in the blast.
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