It won’t be wrong to analyse that Mumbai Indians lost in the first 20 overs of their IPL-7 match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Dubai on Saturday, as their 115 was never enough to challenge a batting-heavy RCB, who romped home by 7 wickets with 2.3 overs to spare.
Mumbai were in the game for just one over during the Bangalore innings when the old warhorse Zaheer Khan removed the dangerous Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh in quick succession, but the 99-run unbeaten partnership betwween AB de Villiers (45*) and Parthiv Patel (57*) doused Mumbai’s hopes of a comeback win.
RCB were 17 for 3 at one stage, having lost three wickets in six balls, but De Villiers and Patel batted smartly to shut the door on Mumbai for their second straight defeat in the tournament.
Earlier, legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal once again led the RCB attack with figures of 2 for 17 to restrict Mumbai to an under-par score. He found good support from Mitchell Starc (2 for 21), Varun Aaron (2/30) and Ashok Dinda (1 for 15), which never allowed Mumbai batsmen to settle.
