IPL 2017 | Rohit Sharma ends Bangalore’s season with patient innings

05/01/2017

Rohit Sharma’s 37 ball 56 innings put an end to Bangalore’s IPL campaign as the latter succumbed to a 5 wicket loss to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede. Pawan Negi’s brilliant all-round performance (35, 2/17) proved to be in vain as MI were able to chase the 163-run target with a ball to spare.

Brief Scores : Royal Challengers Bangalore 162/8 (AB de Villiers 43, Pawan Negi 35; Mitchell McClenaghan 3/34, Krunal Pandya 2/34) lost to Mumbai Indians 165/5 (Rohit Sharma 53, Jos Buttler 33; Pawan Negi 2/17, Shane Watson 1/28) by 5 wickets.

Winning the toss, Virat Kohli made the surprising decision of opting to bat first. After losing three games, embarrassingly, RCB made three changes to the squad by bringing in Shane Watson, Mandeep Singh and Aniket Choudhary in place of Samuel Badree, Sachin Baby and Stuart Binny. Mumbai were forced into a change as well with the injured Harbhajan Singh making way for Karn Sharma.

AB stabilizes RCB after early dismissals

With Chris Gayle again not making the cut, Mandeep Singh was given the nod to open the innings alongside Virat Kohli and the 25-year-old made a good start by hitting Mitchell McClenaghan for two boundaries in the first over and followed it up with another one off Lasith Malinga. Kohli, who had been playing second fiddle till then, attacked Karn Sharma with a huge six over long on in the fourth over. However, the 29-year-old exacted his revenge by getting the wicket of Mandeep. In the last over of the powerplay, McClenaghan claimed the scalp of Kohli, but the incoming AB de Villiers signalled his intent by smashing the Kiwi for 10 runs off two consecutive balls to take the score to 52/2. Rohit Sharma got Krunal Pandya, who had dismissed de Villiers on all three occasions the duo had met, into the attack but the South African was in no mood to throw away his wicket and guided his side to 80/2 at the midway point of the innings.

Krunal drags Mumbai back into the game

But Pandya Sr. was not to be denied and after the break, he sent both Travis Head and de Villiers back to the dugout in consecutive overs. With Bumrah dismissing Shane Watson in the next over, it looked like it was the same old story for Bangalore as they succumbed to 111/5 off 14 overs. The two new men at the crease, Kedar Jadhav and Pawan Negi, took their time to settle down at the crease but once they got their eye in both players started playing expansive shots. Jadhav got the show running by hitting Bumrah for a four and Negi bettered that with two sixes off Malinga in the 18th over. Negi was finally living up to the potential he had promised for so long as hit Bumrah for a big one in the next over as well. The last over, bowled by McClenaghan, yielded just five runs at the cost of three wickets as Mumbai restricted Bangalore to 162.

Negi’s double puts Bangalore on top

RCB got off to the perfect start with Aniket Choudhary sending Parthiv Patel back to the pavilion on the very first ball of the innings. But, Nitish Rana, who had been struggling for form lately, started off by hitting Choudhary for a boundary off the last ball of the first over. In the next over, he got another couple off Chahal and Buttler went one better in the following one as Mumbai found themselves in the comfortable position of 55/1 at the end of the powerplay. But Pawan Negi, who had a brilliant day with the bat, dismissed the settled duo in consecutive overs to bring Bangalore back into the game. At the midway point, Mumbai required 89 runs off 10 overs to win the game and end RCB’s season early.

Rohit Sharma guides his team to a deserved victory

With Mumbai struggling to put Negi away, the required run rate crept above nine an over which resulted in the Mumbai duo of Sharma and Pollard taking on Milne to add 12 runs to the score. However, the partnership didn’t last long as the impatient Pollard hit a shot straight down the throat of Head off Chahal’s bowling. Mumbai were dealt another blow when Krunal, who had replaced Pollard, had to retire hurt after a dive aggravated a previous injury. With the run rate going over 10 for the first time in the game, Rohit Sharma came into his own as he hit Choudhary for two boundaries in as many balls to keep his side in the game. Chahal’s last over yielded another 11 runs and when Rohit hit Watson for a four on the first ball of the 17th over, it appeared that Mumbai were in the driving seat. However, Watson made amends as Karn was caught at deep square leg and made the match equation interesting with the home side needing 30 off the last three overs. Sharma, though, made it look easy as the MI captain brought up his fifty en route to securing the win with a ball to spare.