Kolkata: Two cracking IPL matches were played on Sunday as Mumbai Indians went past Gujarat Lions by six wickets in the first match held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Home team skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and put Gujarat to bat. And his team got off to a flying start as Dwayne Smith was dismissed on the very second ball of the match. But a good partnership between Brendon McCullum and skipper Suresh Raina put on a solid 81-run stand and Dinesh Karthik and Jason Roy put the finishing touches to put 176 runs on the board. Lasith Malinga had an off day as he ended up conceding 51 runs from four overs- his highest in the tournament.
In reply, Parthiv Patel too was dismissed off the second ball of the innings as the Mumbai batting was resurrected by Jos Butler and Nitish Rana, who scored a fine fifty to become the tournament’s highest run getter. And responsible innings from Kieron Pollard and skipper Rohit Sharma guided Mumbai to victory with six wickets and three balls to spare.
In the second match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, home team Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and opted to field against Rising Pune Supergiant. Pune openers Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi did a commendable job putting 63 runs before both were dismissed in no time. Skipper Steve Smith combined with Mahendra Singh Dhoni to steady the Pune ship but a quick flurry of wickets towards the end dampened Pune’s hopes of crossing 150 before a 27 run blitzkrieg by Manoj Tiwary helped them put 161 runs on the board.
And no one might have thought that the Manoj Tiwary innings would ultimately be the difference between the two sides as Bangalore began nicely with skipper Virat Kohli and Mandeep Singh. The latter was soon dismissed and AB De Villiers came to support Kohli in the run chase. But regular wickets dented the RCB’S hopes of a win as Ben Stokes ended up with 3 wickets from his spell of four overs, handing Pune a brilliant 27 run win.
With the results today, Mumbai Indians moved to the top of the table and Gujarat Lions are at the seventh position. Rising Pune Supergiant, courtesy this win are at the sixth position as Virat Kohli’s Bangalore are at the bottom of the league table.
Summarised scores:
Gujarat Lions 176/4 (Brendon McCullum 64, Dinesh Karthik 48*; Mitchell McClenaghan 2/24) lost to Mumbai Indians 177/4 in 19.3 overs (Nitish Rana 53, Rohit Sharma 40*; Andrew Tye 2/34) by 6 wickets.
Rising Pune Supergiant 161/8 (Rahul Tripathi 31, Ajinkya Rahane 30; Adam Milne 2/27) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 134/9 (AB De Villiers 29, Virat Kohli 28 ; Ben Stokes 3/18) by 27 runs.