IPL 7: Royals Challengers swat aside Mumbai Indians for second win

Result: Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets

Toss: Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and chose to field first

Mumbai Indians 115/9 (Rayudu 35, Chahal 2-17, Starc 2-11): Mumbai Indians batsmen failed to counter some clinical bowling from Royal Challengers Bangalore as the defending champions stuttered to 115 for 9 from their 20 over, failing to hit even a single six.

Despite a couple of early dropped chances, Mumbai never got going. South African pacer Albie Morkel drew first blood by scalping Mike Hussey for 16 in the 4th over of the innings. It was the second consecutive failure for last season’s best batsman.

Varun Aaron bowled with pace and intent, but it was leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who started the slide. Continuing the success leggies had in the World T20, Chahal sucked the oxygen out of Mumbai;s innings by snapping up the wickets of Rohit Sharma (2) and the big-hitting Kieron Pollard (3) in successive overs. Chahal would finish his four-over spell with figures of 2-17.

Ambati Rayudu and Corey Anderson tried to stem the rot, stitching together a 31-run fifth wicket partnership, but Mitchell Starc sent the two back in the dug-out in his third over and Mumbai never recovered.

Rayudu was caught at long off for a fighting 35 as AB de Villiers took his second catch while Anderson followed him soon after to give Starc a hat-trick chance. The Australian left-arm pacer did not get the hat-trick but ended with impressive figures of 2/21.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 116/3 (Patel 57*, De Villiers 45*): RCB’s chase got off to the worst possible start as Lasith Malinga yorked Nick Maddinson with a Malinga special before Zaheer Khan struck twice in three balls to send Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh back to the dugout without scoring.

He outfoxed Kohli by tempting him with one angled across him and Kohli couldn’t resist guiding it straight to first slip. The very next delivery Yuvraj was dropped by the keeper but it didn’t matter as Zaheer got the ball to nip back from just short of the crease to trap Yuvraj plumb in front.

After that nervy start, the rest of the game was the Parthiv Patel and AB de Villiers show. The small target meant they didn’t have to take any risks and they smartly knocked the ball around to steady the innings before Parthiv finished the match off in a flurry of boundaries, reaching his half-centry in the process.

Parthiv ended the day unbeaten on 57 from 45 balls while De Villiers was content with 45 from 48. They added 99 together from 13.4 overs to seal Bangalore’s second straight win and condemn Mumbai to an 0-2 start as they seek to defend their title.

Turning Point: A big finish from Rayudu and Corey Anderson could have pushed Mumbai Indians to a competitive total. Instead, both perished off successive deliviers trying to slog Starc in the 17th over. Mumbai wound up making just 17 runs from the last four overs while losing five wickets.

Man of the Match: Parthiv Patel

You can read the as it happened here .

You can see the full scorecard here .

With inputs from PTI