Mumbai Indians finally go their first win of IPL 11 thanks to sparkling half centuries from captain Rohit Sharma and Evin Lewis.
However, when they lost wickets off the first two balls of their innings, it hardly looked like they would be able to post a formidable 213 for six against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede.
But they did exactly that. The initial impetus came from the left-handed Trinidadian Lewis struck 5 sixes and 6 fours in his 42-ball 55.
After his dismissal Rohit, who flopped in the first three games, took over the lead role to hammer 94 in 52 balls before departing off the penultimate ball, caught at long on. He smashed 5 sixes and 10 fours.
It was MI’s first score in excess of 200 in four games this season.
All the RCB bowlers went for runs, including Umesh Yadav in his second spell. Spinners Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal were particularly expensive.
In reply, RCB were simply unable to keep it together. They lost wickets at regular intervals and even though Virat Kohli played a superb knock – scoring 92 out of a total of 167. The next highest scorer for Quinton de Kock with 19.
It shows how bad the RCB batting effort was but it also shows how good MI’s bowlers were. Krunal Pandya was very good and he ended up with 3-28. But so were Jasprit Bumrah (2-28) and Mitchell McClenaghan (2-24).
Kohli played a brilliant knock but it wasn’t enough to help his team even challenge MI. The 46-run loss would have hit their net run-rate in a big way as well.
The win lifts Mumbai off the bottom of the table and brings them on level with RCB on points but ahead of them because of their NRR.
(with inputs from PTI)