Today, Mumbai Indians played their fourth and final match of the prelims against the Royal Challengers Bangalore who were playing their third match of the prelims Kingsmead, Durban. This was an important match for both the teams as this match could help them to get into semis. Mumbai Indians have won only one match in the tournament so far, hence they have to win this match with a huge margin so that their net run rate could increase. With the help of luck they have got one last chance to enter into the semis with help of Net run rate if they win this match. On the other hand RCB has won only one match and they are looking to win this match so that they can gain some confidence for the next and final game that will be played against Highveld Lions on Tuesday. Mumbai Indians won the toss & elected to bat first.
Shikhar Dhawan and the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar started the play for Mumbai Indians side. They started off well but Sachin Tendulkar got out after scoring 11 runs. They lost 2 more wickets very quickly after their captains fall. Later Saurabh Tiwary came in to bat and partnered Dhawan so that they added some good score to the MI total. After the fall of Shikhar Dhawan, the big man Kieron Pollard came in to bat and he followed Dhawan to the pavillion as he got duck out . Mumbai Indians some how managed to put up a good total of 165 runs on board with the loss of 7 wickets. Vinay Kumar looked impressive with the ball with an economy rate of just 4 runs per over but he did not pick any wicket for RCB. Dale Steyn picked up 3 very important wickets that helped the RCB to restrict the MI to land up with the total score of 165 runs.
RCB needed 166 runs to win the match from 20 overs with 10 wickets on hand. Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid opened the batting innings for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The start for RCB was very good and they were satisfying the requirement. The man in form Jacques Kallis got out in the second delivery of the fifth over when RCB total was 41 runs. But RCB 's expected legends failed to play in today's game, Ross Taylor, Robin Uthappa and Cameron White all three got out very quickly after the fall of Jacques Kallis. Rahul Dravid was adding some pretty good runs so that RCB was almost in pace with the required run rate. Later, Virat Kohli came in to bat and he batted magnificently thereby giving some hopes to the RCB and showed some signs of victory to the team. He was in very good form and was belting the MI bowling attack with an average strike rate of around 200. There came a stage where RCB needed 13 runs from 6 deliveries with 6 wickets on hand. This was an very crucial moment for both the teams as the victory was for either side. For the first 2 deliveries added only 2 runs and later Kohli managed to hit 2 boundaries in next 3 deliveries thereby reducing the required run to 3 runs from 1 delivery. It was an nail biting situation for both the teams as the match could end up with either team. Kohli got a very good delivery where he hit the ball with all his might hoping for the ball to clear the fence, but the ball edged the bat and went high in the air. Ambati Rayudu took the catch and RCB lost its fifth wicket and Mumbai Indians won the match by 2 runs. Man of the match was Dwayne Bravo for his brilliant performance with bat, ball and as well as in the field.
Mumbai Indians have won 2 matches but even then they cannot enter the semis as their net run rate is less than RCB. Even Highveld Lions have won 2 matches and their run rate is also more than MI. In the next match which will be played between RCB and HVL, whoever wins the match they will entering into semis along with Southern Redbacks from Group B.
1 comment:
Who will be the winner?????
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