Bangalore: Mumbai Indians rode on Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard’s swashbucklings knocks and their unbroken 122-run sixth-wicket partnership to stage a dramatic fightback and beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in their Indian Premier League match here on Monday.
Rayudu smashed an unbeaten 81 off 54 balls while Pollard remained not out on 52 off 31 as Mumbai Indians chased down the target of 172 with two balls to spare after staring down the barrel at 51 for five in the ninth over.
Pollard smashed Gayle for a six and two fours to seal the match for Mumbai and keep their chances of qualifying for the playoffs alive.
Pollard and Rayudu hit nine runs in the penultimate over off Zaheer, leaving Mumbai to score 14 in last over.
The nightmare of not getting good starts haunted MI yet again when they lost three early wickets by the fourth over.
MI started poorly losing Sachin Tendulkar for a first- ball duck. Zaheer Khan, who seems to be peaking at the right time for RCB, had the batsman caught by Virat Kohli at short cover point.
The visitors then lost Herchelle Gibbs for two after KP Appanna fired in a superb throw at the bowler’s end where Tiwary did the rest.
MI were in trouble with the scorecard reading seven for two at the end of the second over.
Mumbai wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik showed early signs of aggression as he carted Zaheer over backward square leg for a boundary and then worked him between the midwicket and mid on for another four.
Rohit Sharma’s dismissal only made things worse for MI.
After the end of seventh over, Mumbai needed 132 runs off 78 balls at 10.15 per over.
Earlier, Mayank Agarwal produced a blistering 30-ball 64 at a crucial juncture to power Bangalore to a challenging 171 for six. Mayank smashed Munaf Patel for 24 runs in the innings’ last over, which included two sixes and as many fours. In all, he hit six fours and four sixes.
Mayank came out to bat when RCB were precariously placed, having lost four wickets with less than 100 on the board.
At the start however, Munaf did not disappoint captain Harbhajan Singh as he struck two crucial blows for Mumbai Indians, dismissing Gayle for just six and running out host captain Virat Kohli for three.