Match Review of Qualifier 2 Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians

Indian Premier League - Match review

Date : 27th May 2011 Match No. : 73
Teams : Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians
Venue : M Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
Umpires : Asad Rauf & Simon Taufel Third Umpire: K Dharamsena
Toss : Mumbai Indians won the toss and choose to field

Playing XI

Royal Challengers Bangalore Mayank Aggarwal Chris Gayle Virat Kohli AB de Villiers L. Pommersbach Daniel Vettori © S. Arvind Abhimanyu Mithun Zaheer Khan Saurabh Tiwary J. Syed Mohd.

Mumbai Indians A. Blizzard Sachin Tendulkar © Rohit Sharma J. Franklin Ambati Rayadu Harbhajan Singh K. Pollard Abu Nechim R. Sathish L. Mallinga Munaf Patel

It can't get better than this, the semifinals of the IPL season 4 promised to be a clash of the Titians as the Royal Challengers Bangalore would take on the Mumbai Indians. The 73rd match of the season would be played at the M Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The winner of the contest would secure its berth in the finals.

There would be no clear cut favorites for this match as both teams stand at par. The crowd would look forward to the clash between the highest run getter, Chris Gyale and the highest wicket taker, Lasith Malinga. While Gyale would like to exhibit some fire cracks, Malinga would focus to put a full stop to the formers dream run in this IPL. But both teams over-dependence on these two players may prove fatal, if any one of them fails to deliver, the team would be in trouble. The key would be to perform has a cohesive unit.

The Chidambaram Stadium track is a good one to bat one but is likely to get slow towards the second part of the innings. The Mumbai Indians skipper won the toss and decided to put opposition to bat. Chris Gyale and Mayank Aggarwal opened the innings for the Challengers. Sachin must have thought on the strategy to remove the dangerous Gayle quickly to control the number of runs on the scoreboard. He decided to open the bowling with Abu Nechim instead of the regular opener Lasith Malinga. That proved to be a wrong decision and backfired completely. Though Gyale was lucky couple of times but managed to score 27 runs of that first over that took the Challengers to a flier.

There was no looking back thereafter as the opening pair brought up the 50 in just 3.2 overs. Gyale hammered all the Indian bowlers completely spoiling their bowling figures. Sachin kept shuffling his bowlers but nothing seemed to be working. Runs kept flowing at great speed and Gyale brought up his haft century in just 27 runs. Mayank Aggarwal made the most of the situation and kept hitting the ball well at the other end.

The Indians were in a grave situation and that forced Sachin to take the 1st strategic time out at the end of the 6th over itself. All the bowling options failed and the two openers brought up 100 for the side in the 9th over itself. They both put up a record 113 runs opening partnership until Pollard gave his team the much needed breakthrough by removing Aggarwal. The later scored 41 of just 31 balls hitting four 4s and two 6s.

Virat Kohli was the next man on the crease. Aggarwal' wicket brought some respite to the Indians and they tried to keep Kohli on strike. Though the scoring rate did come down a bit but was still above 10 an over. Gayle who had his eye in, kept hitting the ball nicely and went on to make 89 runs of 47 deliveries hitting nine 4s and five 6s. Patel who was the most economical of the Indian attack took the big wicket of Gyale in the 15th over. Kohli was the next man to go cheaply on 8. The Challengers at this stage were 151/3 in the 16th over. Few wickets in quick succession did put some breaks on the flow of runs.

AB de Villiers and Pommersbach were the two new men at the crease. Al they required to do was to bat sensibly and utilized the great platform already provided by the openers.. Munaf Patel stuck once again and took Pommersbach's wicket for just 4 runs. de Villiers along with Tiwari struggled to score but still managed to put up a 28 runs partnership taking their team total to 185 in the allotted 20 overs quota.

Chris Gyale's departure changed the whole scenario. Till the time he was on the crease, a total of 200 plus definitely looked on cards but with his wicket the opposition managed to restrict the Challengers to a total of just 185 runs, which was still a very challenging total on this track.

Sachin and Blizzard opened the Mumbai innings. Though Blizzard has been in and out of the squad but been very impressive in all the matches that he has played. He along with Sachin have given their side some great starts taking the pressure completely off the rest of the batting line up.

Blizzard failed to fire and gave away his wicket to S Arvind cheaply at 10. The Indians lost their 1st wicket early at 23 runs. Harbhajan Singh was sent up the order to as pinch hitter. This strategy had worked well for the Indians in their match against the Knight Riders. Harbhajan could not contribute much but made a quick 13 of just 7 deliveries before getting out to S Aravind. The Indians at this stage were 41/2 in the 6th over. Though they were scoring at a decent run rate but the wickets were a concern.

Rohit Sharma, a great 20-20 player came in to join hands with the skipper. Sachin looked in great touch but was under tremendous pressure to keep the run rate up. Rohit was new at the crease and needed time to have his eye in, Sachin had to ensure that he ball reaches the boundary every over to keep the required run rate under control. The Indians needed couple of big and quick partnerships were they were not in store. Soon Sachin feel victim to Syed Mohamad leaving his side in the huge trouble. He scored 40 of 27 deliveries and the Indians were at 68 runs in the 8th over. With Sachin back in the stands the Challengers captain decided to put pressure on the two new batsmen at the crease. He brought himself into attack and quickly removed Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayadu in the same over. Rayadu could on even open his account and was removed for a duck. The Indians were 83/5 in the 11th over.

Franklin and Pollard were at the crease struggling to bail out their team of this mess. Pollard has not been able to get his act right neither with the ball nor with the bat. He had an opportunity to play an innings of his reputation as the team was in serious trouble but failed to deliver. Sathish joined Franklin on the crease. At this stage the chase looked completely unattainable unless this batting pair played out of their skins. But that was not to be the case as the Indians soon found themselves seven wickets down under the 100 runs mark. Franklin was the next man to go as he was clean bowled by Zaheer Khan, a very crucial wicket as he has played a vital role in few chases. The script was very clear and the Indians were playing only for their pride. The rest of the batting line up could manage to see through the 20 overs and took the team to total of 142 runs which was 43 runs short of their chase. Chris Gyale once again played a crucial role in the Challengers victory. A track where all the batsmen struggled to score, Gyale made batting look so easy, that's the power of this Jamaican.

Result: Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 43 runs

The Awards

Man of the match
Chris Gayle for his all round performance with bat and ball

Maximum Sixes
Chris Gayle for hitting 5 huge sixes

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings top the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Chris Gayle, Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day?
Can Chris Gayle alone pull-off Final from mighty Chennai Super Kings?



Last Updated on 30 May 2011