Two sides that rely heavily on their captains who are habitual (in a good way) of playing match winning innings – Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians took on each other in 41st match of the VIVO IPL 2016.
While RCB has heavy dependence on it’s captain Kohli who has single handedly won matches for them, Mumbai Indians after a slow start to the season came back due to the consistency shown by Rohit Sharma – hence it was a contest in essence between 2 captains and who led his side to the victory.
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | vs | Mumbai Indians |
| Date | 11 May 2016 | |
| Venue | M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru | |
| 151/4 (20) | 153/4 (18.4) | |
Mumbai Indians won by 6 wickets |
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Mumbai Indians won the toss and left out Hardik Pandya for Nitish Rana. The RCB decided to include Gayle back into the side (something that we suggested in RCB’s last match report), Travis Head was put on the bench. Also coming into the side was Aravind in place of Iqbal Abdulla.
Kohli’s consistency has been pivotal to RCB’s winning but today was to be the rare day where Kohli didn’t score much and went out cheaply for 7. Gayle who made his way back into the side was also unable to get going and went for just 5. RCB were 17-2.
Villiers hung around a bit but not in his usual style, making a 27 ball 24; with the BIG 3 back to the pavilion with 10 overs still to go, the road ahead for RCB to set a big total for Mumbai Indians to chase wasn’t going to be easy.
Some respite came with the application shown by KL Rahul, demoted to 2nd down in the batting order and yet showed good signs of form. Rahul made a 68* in 53 balls, he really has shined for RCB this season and remains a great bonus for them – maybe demoting him wasn’t the best decision they made, perhaps Kohli can come at 1st down and Gayle could open with Rahul!
It was Rahul’s 68 that led RCB to the total of 151.
Mumbai Indians lost an early wicket in the chase and that of Parthiv Patel for just 1. Rohit Sharma was taking his time to get going and with the kind of role that he has in the side, that of guiding the team to victory; playing under such pressure conditions wasn’t easy and thus he didn’t get going at a fast pace.
Rohit Sharma went after making a 24 ball 25, Mumbai Indians were 60-2 after 10. Things went from bad to worse as Rayudu who was the major striker in the innings thus far and was settled with 44 to his name in 47 balls meant that he was all set to hit explosive shots but it wasn’t to be as he got out just when Mumbai Indians required someone who was settled to go for the big shots – Mumbai Indians were 98-4.
The duo of Pollard and Buttler were essential to guide Mumbai Indians to victory and they were potentially the last recognized pair to get Mumbai anywhere near to the target and they DID JUST THAT.
Pollard’s 35 in 19 and Buttler’s 29 in 11 got Mumbai not only back into the match but ended up getting the runs quite comfortably with 8 balls still to spare. The match ended with an anti-climax with Aaron getting Buttler out in the 18th over whilst Mumbai still requiring 8 runs but it was a no-ball and therefore became a free-hit, coming back from this disaster wasn’t to be the case and therefore concluded another match in Mumbai’s favor who are now in the top 4 in points table, RCB are placed at 6.
To make the playoffs, RCB now need to win all their remaining 4 matches.
RCB & MI Squads for 11 May 2016 Match 41
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli (C), Varun Aaron, Abu Nechim, Sreenath Aravind, Samuel Badree, Stuart Binny, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers (W), Praveen Dubey, Chris Gayle, Travis Head, Iqbal Abdulla, Kedar Jadhav, Akshay Karnewar, Sarfaraz Khan, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Harshal Patel, Lokesh Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, Mitchell Starc, Vikas Tokas, Shane Watson, David Wiese, Tabraiz Shamsi, Chris Jordan
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma (C), Corey Anderson, Jasprit Bumrah, Jos Buttler (W), Unmukt Chand, Marchant de Lange, Shreyas Gopal, Harbhajan Singh, Kishore Kamath, Siddhesh Lad, Mitchell McClenaghan, Lasith Malinga, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Parthiv Patel, Kieron Pollard, Deepak Punia, Nitish Rana, Jitesh Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Nathu Singh, Lendl Simmons, Tim Southee, Jagadeesha Suchith, Vinay Kumar, Akshay Wakhare, Martin Guptill, Jerome Taylor
MI vs RCB Video Recap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX8FerBVIqE
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