Press Trust of India
Bangalore, April 19: Chris Gayle (10, 24b), opening the batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) wasted too many balls at the top of the order and that helped Mumbai Indians (MI) register their first victory of IPL-VIII here Sunday. MI after being put into bat by Virat Kohli put up 209 for seven and then restricted hosts RCB to 191 for seven to win the tie by 18 runs.
Gayle and Kohli (18, 18b, 1×4, 1×6) left too much to do for the batsmen following them. In spite of AB de Villiers (41, 11b, 5×4, 3×6) giving it his all, it was too much a target to attain. Later on David Wiese (43 n o, 24b, 5×4, 3×6) and Iqbal Abdullah (20, 15b, 4×4) tried also hit out lustily, but it was not enough.
Earlier some brilliant batting at the top of the order helped Mumbai Indians (MI) cross the 200-run mark for the first time this season. Lendl Simmons (59, 44b, 9×4, 2×6), Unmukt Chand (58, 37b, 8×4, 2×6) and Rohit Sharma (42, 15b, 3×4, 4×6) cut loose to decimate the RCB bowling. Pacers Varun Aaron (none for 50 off four) and Abu Nechim Ahmed (none for 59 off four) were the worst suffers as they were hit to all parts of the ground.
Simmons got into the act early on hitting Aaron for three successive boundaries in the fourth over of the innings. Then in the 11th over he again attacked the hapless pacer hitting him for 16 runs which included two boundaries and a huge six over mid-wicket.
Brief scores: MI 209 for 7 (Lendl Simmons 59, Unmukt Chand 58, Rohit Sharma 42) beat RCB 191 for 7 (David Wiese 43 n o, AB de Villiers 41, Harbhajan Singh 3/27) by 18 runs
