IPL 9: Royal Challengers Bangalore rally to post 170/7

Mumbai Indians spinner Krunal Pandya celebrates Virat Kohli’s dismissal on Wednesday. (Photo: BCCI)

Travis Head and Sarafraz Khan provided Royal Challengers Bangalore a late flourish after hiccups in the middle to take them to 170/7 in their IPL game against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday.

Virat Kohli (33, 30b, 3x4) and AB de Villiers (29, 21b, 3x4, 1x6) had set the platform with a 59-run stand in 39 balls and despite three quick wickets Head (37, 24b, 2x4, 2x6) and Khan (28, 18b, 2x4, 2x6) shared a fifth wicket partnership of 63 in 34 balls to take RCB to challenging score. Jasprit Bumrah (3/31) sizzled with the ball for Mumbai.

Though Mumbai Indians were in a desperate situation before the game losing three games out of four, RCB were the ones making a massive six changes in their XI.

They reinforced the bowling by bringing in all-rounder Stuart Binny for Parvez Rasool, Kane Richardson for David Wiese, local boy Iqbal Abdulla for Yuzvendra Chahal and Varun Aaron in place of Sreenath Aravind.

Of the batsmen, they were forced to bring in Head for Chris Gayle who has returned home. Kedar Jadhav who kept wicket in the previous two games made way for K.L. Rahul.

The hosts in contrast made one change with fit again Kieron Pollard replacing Martin Guptill. Skipper Rohit Sharma expected dew to play a role as has been the norm here and accordingly decided to bowl first after having lost both games batting first here. Kohli also wanted to chase as the wicket had done a bit early on. Tim Southee (0/25) and Mitchell McClenaghan (1/46) got the ball to jag around a bit. Rahul was once struck on the helmet by McClenaghan as bowlers dominated initially.

The first boundary came in the third over when Southee strayed on the leg stump and Kohli flicked it clinically.

Rahul 23 (14b, 2x4, 2x6) then found cheeky ways to deal with short deliveries by hitting McClenagahan for two sixes and a boundary to get momentum in the innings but he edged to Harbhajan Singh at slip. Kohli and de Villiers got to act together again recalling their unbeaten 215 stand here last season but they couldn’t dominate the bowlers who were on target.

The duo set the stage for a flourish but left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya (2/27) bowled an exceptional 11th over of the innings to get rid of both. Kohli couldn’t reach the pitch of the ball and holed out to Southee at long on and de Villiers followed three balls later, smartly stumped by Parthiv Patel.

Scoreboard Royal Challengers Bangalore: V. Kohli c Southee b Krunal 33, K.L. Rahul c Harbhajan b McClenaghan 23, AB de Villiers st Patel b Krunal 29, S. Watson c Patel b Bumrah 5, T. Head run out 37, S. Khan c Pandya b Bumrah 28, S. Binny c Pandya b Bumrah 1, H. Patel (not out) 0, K. Richardson (not out) 1. Extras: (b1, lb2, w10) 13. Total: (for 7 wkts, in 20 overs) 170 FoW: 1-32, 2-91, 3-93, 4-99, 5-162, 6-169, 7-169. Bowling: Southee 4-0-25-0, McClenaghan 4-0-46-1, Bumrah 4-0-31-3, Harbhajan 2-0-20-0 (2w), Krunal 4-0-27-2 (4w), Hardik 2-0-18-0