Hardik Pandya smashed 37* off 16. Image source: Mumbai Indians twitter account |
Mumbai Indians(MI) registered their fifth win against Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) in the match 31 of Indian Premier League(IPL). The openers, bowlers and Hardik Pandya won it for the home team. Hardik hit the winning runs as MI won by 5 wickets. He smashed 37* off 16 with 5 fours and 2 sixes at an incredible strike-rate of 231.25.
MI had a kick-start to their innings, smashing 67 in the Powerplay overs. The opening pair added 70 with Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock scoring 28 and 40 respectively. It was the 8th over by Moeen Ali that broke the momentum. Ali took two quick wickets to send the openers back to the pavilion. The spinners getting bounce and turn troubled the batsmen for a while. However, Ishan Kishan smashed 3 sixes in his cameo of 21(9). Trying to continue the hitting he was done by Yuzvendra Chahal in a stumping.
Suryakumar Yadav, who was looking good also mistimed a shot off Chahal which resulted his wicket. It was all up to the Pandya brothers to take MI home. MI needed 41 off 24 with one over by a spinner pending. Krunal failed to connect the ball very well, and was eventually out in the 18th over for 11(21). However, Hardik was connecting the ball as sweetly as he could. RCB risked the second last over with Pawan Negi and Hardik grabbed the opportunity with open arms.
Earlier in the match, AB de Villiers (75) and Moeen Ali(50) took RCB to 171 in 20 overs. However, in the death overs MI pulled things back. At one time it seemed that the away team will go past 190 easily. Lasith Malinga bowled an impressive spell of 4-0-31-4 to restrict RCB.
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