Pune: Anuj Rawat (66) and Virat Kohli (48) helped Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by seven wickets in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the MCA Stadium on Saturday.
Rawat stitched a sedate 50-run opening stand with skipper Faf du Plessis (16) and then went onto form a match-winning 80-run partnership with Kohli for the second wicket.
MI were looking for early wickets, but the pair of Rawat and du Plessis steered RCB's ship steadily while chasing a moderate target of 152. Jaydev Unadkat stuck soon after the Powerplay as du Plessis holed out to long-on.
However, it didn't deter RCB's mission as Kohli quickly got into rebuilding the innings with Rawat. Rawat registered his half-century off 38 balls.
With the match slipping out of MI's hands, Ramandeep Singh gave MI supporters some hope as a direct hit from him ended Rawat's stay at the crease.
Rawat, whose innings was decorated with six maximums and two boundaries, fell short at non-striker's end as Kohli had called for a second run.
Basil Thampi created a chance as Kohli, who was on 30, pulled to deep midwicket but Dewald Brevis couldn't hold onto the ball and it eventually went through him for a boundary.
Brevis took a sweet revenge as he denied Kohli a half-century. In the penultimate over, Brevis trapped Kohli lbw. While the on-field umpire gave out, Kohli reviewed the decision.
Since the ball was close to the bat's edge and pad, the TV umpire went with the on-field umpire's decision which forced a fuming Kohli to return to dugout. However, it was RCB who had the last laugh as incoming Glenn Maxwell smashed back-to-back boundaries off Brevis to take RCB home with nine balls to spare.
Earlier in the day, Suryakumar Yadav's unbeaten 68 off 37 balls lifted MI to 151/6. At one point MI were staggering at 79/6 after 13.2 overs but Suryakumar veered his team's innings with six sixes and five boundaries to give MI bowlers something to fight for.
MI got off to a decent start after being put into bat first, with openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan racing to 49 runs at the end of Powerplay.
However, MI's outing turned into a nightmare with the dismissal of skipper Rohit. Wanindu Hasaranga and Harshal Patel shared four wickets, while Akash Deep took a scalp to cause panic in MI's dugout.
Harshal got the big breakthrough just when MI were running away. The pacer deceived Rohit with a slower off-cutter and caught him for 26. Rohit's 15-ball stay was studded with four boundaries and one maximum. MI sent in Brevis ahead of Suryakumar.
The plan backfired as leg-spinner Hasaranga trapped Brevis (8) lbw. The 10th over took Bangalore on cloud nine as it turned out to be a double-wicket maiden over.
Kishan (26) played an upper-cut against fast bowler Akash but Mohammed Siraj caught him at third man.
Two balls later, Tilak Varma got off to a suicidal single but a direct hit by Glenn Maxwell forced Verma to return to dugout without scoring.
Adding to Mumbai's miseries, Hasaranga trapped big-hitter Kieron Pollard lbw for a golden duck. And in just 31 balls, MI lost five wickets.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 151/6 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 68 not out; Harshal Patel 2/23, Wanindu Hasaranga 2/28) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 152/3 in 18.3 overs (Anuj Rawat 66, Virat Kohli 48; Dewald Brevis 1/8) by 7 wickets. (UNI)
