Sachin Tendulkar, the controller, and Ambati Rayudu, the enforcer, made
short work of the below-par target set by Bangalore to give Mumbai their
second successive win of the tournament. However, it was with the bat
that Bangalore lost the game tonight. It was a strange innings as
Bangalore were in consolidation mode for most of the time after they
slipped to 19 for 2 and then meandered away to 140.
There was no such hesitation shown by Mumbai in the chase. Every time
Bangalore tried a new bowler, Tendulkar and Rayudu lashed out. When
Abhimanyu Mithun was introduced in the sixth over, Tendulkar showcased
his gorgeous straight drive, and Rayudu swatted a bouncer before
creaming him through wide mid-off. When Tillakaratne Dilshan came on in
the tenth over, Tendulkar deployed the slog sweep and the conventional
sweep to collect more boundaries. When Asad Pathan was brought in the
12th over, Rayudu crash-pulled the first delivery to midwicket and when
Virat Kohli returned for a second spell, in the 13th over, Tendulkar
smote him to the straight boundary.
Mumbai's batsmen reserved their best for Zaheer Khan, whose awful night
mirrored Bangalore's in many ways. Davy Jacobs flat-batted the fourth
ball of the chase for a stunning six over long-on, and sandwiched fours
through the covers and long-off with a lovely whipped six in Zaheer's
next over. When Zaheer returned for a second spell, Rayudu cut him to
the point boundary, slammed a full toss to midwicket and lofted him
through long-on.
In comparison, Bangalore's approach was completely lacking in intent.
Tillakaratne Dilshan hit a half-century but it felt like an imposter was
wearing his jersey. AB de Villiers made 38 but never looked like he
would hurt the opposition. "It's a difficult track to bat; there is
spongy bounce and AB (de Villiers) and I thought 140 would be a good
score," Dilshan said at the end of the innings. He couldn't have been
more wrong, at least tonight.
The ball didn't appear to stop on the batsmen, there wasn't any alarming
turn but they struggled to get going. Mumbai's night was set up by
Lasith Malinga with a brute of a first ball. It was full, it was pacy
and it curved away devilishly late, past a stunned Mayank Agarwal and
knocked out off stump. Next, Malinga pinged Virat Kohli on the boot with
another screaming yorker, but it was not given out. Kohli fell soon
after, top-edging his trademark on-side heave to the keeper. It was the
beginning of the crawl.
Dilshan tried to punch his way out of trouble but rarely found the
timing or the gaps. de Villiers also played within himself and the pair
started concentrating on singles. de Villiers fell in the 17th over,
top-edging a slog against Pollard and that paved the way for Saurabh
Tiwary to free his arms. He flat-batted Malinga over extra cover and
heaved Harbhajan Singh to cow corner. Dilshan woke up in the last over
to slap Malinga for six over midwicket as Mumbai finished on a mini-high
but the target proved grossly insufficient.
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