Rohit guides MI to lastgasp victory AB-Virat not on same page over crucial delivery
Mumbai Indians go top of table with fivewicket win over hapless Royal Challengers Bangalore
MUMBAI:It was a day when Pawan Negi could do no wrong. The leftarm spinner and batsman contributed in both departments to be Royal Challengers Bangalore’s standout player against Mumbai Indians. But Negi received little support from his teammates and RCB crashed to their eighth defeat in 11 matches.
After hitting a quickfire 32 off 23 balls to help Royal Challengers Bangalore put up a fighting total of 162/8, Pawan Negi gave nothing away with the ball, finishing his quota of four overs for 17 runs with two big wickets.
Captain Rohit Sharma however used all his experience to soak in the pressure to shepherd Mumbai Indians chase and seal their eighth win with an unbeaten 56 off 37 balls. With 16 points, Mumbai go top of the table and are almost through to the playoffs.
It was a superbly controlled innings from Rohit. Building on the platform laid by Jos Buttler and Nitish Rana’s 61-run secondwicket stand, Rohit first saw off dangerman Negi’s spell.
When 59 runs were needed off 36 balls, Sharma took charge of the chase with two fours off left- arm pacer Aniket Choudhary’s over.
Even as wickets fell at the other end, Rohit stayed calm. His move to promote Karn Sharma ahead of Hardik Pandya paid off and the two put on 29 runs in three overs, with Rohit alone scoring 18.
To the delight of his home crowd, Rohit milked the RCB bowlers by playing copy-book strokes, with the backfoot punch through extra cover off Shane Watson in the 17th over being the pick of his six boundaries.
The equation was 18 runs off 12 balls when Rohit played his first improvised stroke of the innings --- moving to the off side and slogsweeping S Aravind for a six. It was the knockout punch for RCB as Mumbai were left with only seven runs to get in six balls. Rohit sealed the win with a four.
Earlier, Negi played the kind of role he was expected to by his team to give impetus to their innings against Mumbai Indians.
But for Negi’s 54-run partnership with Kedar Jadhav (28 off 22 balls) for the sixth wicket, it was a similar story for the Bangalore side with none of the top order batsmen capitalising on starts. MUMBAI Bowling the 18th over of Mumbai Indians innings at the Wankhede, Aniket Choudhary had kept Royal Challengers Bangalore in the game with five runs off his first five balls. The equation was 25 off 13 balls, which would have been a stiff target even for Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, the two batsmen at the crease.
Aniket sent his next ball wide and as he got ready to bowl the final ball of the over again, he walked up to AB de Villiers for advice. Even as captain Virat Kohli yelled out instructions to the bowler after his talk with De Villiers, Aniket delivered a straight, short ball. Hardik Pandya’s eyes lit up and he made the most of the gift by smashing it for six over midwicket to reduce the equation to a gettable 18 runs off 12 balls.
“In the last training session, I was practicing with AB and he said I was bowling well. In this match also, he was backing me from the first ball. As far as the last ball was concerned, I was wondering whether to bowl (Hardik) the slower one or fast one. Maybe it was a matchchanging point. So I asked him (AB) ‘what should I bowl?’ He said ‘maybe he’s ready for the slower one, you should go with the hard length.’ When someone as great as AB tells you do to something, it’s hard to go against it. Virat wasn’t happy with what I bowled. He thought I should have bowled full and slow,” said Aniket.
Stuck on five points after 11 games, it has been a forgettable season for Royal Challengers. Aniket blamed it on bad luck.
For table toppers Mumbai Indians, the challenge will be to maintain the intensity in their last four games. Karn Sharma said it will be important to not take the foot off the pedal.
Their only concern was injuries to spinners Harbhajan Singh and Krunal Pandya, but Karn assured both were fit.