Today First semi-finals was played between Mumbai Indians & Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai Indians won the toss & elected to bat first. Most of the viewers in the stadium were supporters of Mumbai Indians. As the match was transferred from Bangalore to Navi Mumbai after the bomb blast which took place in Bangalore a few days ago, supporters of Bangalore could not make it to Navi Mumbai. With the less supporters, Royal Challengers Bangalore opened their bowling with the bowler Praveen Kumar. He started his bowling in a grand style where he gave only 2 runs in the very first over. Sachin Tendulkar in the second over hit 2 fours, which gave a very bright confidence to the team. But this did not last long as he got out in the fifth ball after hitting 2 continuous four. He gave a straight catch to Ross Taylor which was taken perfectly, the ground halted with a complete silence. Even Shikhar Dhawan could not make it big as he got out in the 4th over. There was a good partnership built between Ambati Rayudu & Abhishek Nayar with a good run rate which was almost 10 runs per over. Abhishek Nayar was out in the 9th over, JP Duminy walked to the crease with a huge responsibility. But he did not succeed as he was tricked by the RCB skipper Anil Kumble & got out in the 10th over. Now Mumbai Indians are into real Pressure as they have lost most of the key players. Mumbai Indians run rate dropped drastically to around 7.15 runs per over. From the 16th over, Mumbai Indians started to bat very aggressively. Both Saurabh Tiwary & Kieron Pollard played well which help Mumbai Indians to put up a total of 184 runs loosing 5 wickets. Saurabh Tiwary scored a unbeaten 52 runs from 31 deliveries & on the other side, Kieron Pollard quick fired scoring 33 runs from just 13 deliveries. Now, pressure in on Royal Challengers Bangalore. They have to score a total of 185 runs from 20 overs to enter the IPL finals.
Royal Challengers Bangalore started their chase with the openers Jacques Kallis & Rahul Dravid. Both of them started the innings in a grand style, but Jacques Kallis could not score more runs so that he could get the orange cap this time. He got out in the 3rd over, bowled by Lasith Malinga & the catch was taken by Ambati Rayudu. Royal Challengers Bangalore lost their first wicket, Kevin Pietersen joined Rahul Dravid at the crease. The wickets kept on falling in a regular intervals. At one particular time Robin Uthappa looked very dangerous but he was tricked by Kieron Pollard & got out. Royal Challengers Bangalore could not chase the target, they landed up scoring just 149 runs completing 20 overs loosing 9 wickets. Mumbai Indians won the match by 35 runs, man of the match was Kieron Pollard for his brilliant performance both in the crease as well in the field.
Mumbai Indians are now into IPL finals. They have 4 more days to go make a history in IPL. Lets wait & watch.
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