The Indian Premier League!: MATCH-2 RCB VS MI, M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Banglore

MATCH-2

RCB VS MI

Venue- M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Banglore
Match Officials- V.Kulkarni, C.Shamsuddin, K.Srinath(Umpires), A.Pycroft(Refree)

Toss- MI won the toss and chose to field first

Result- RCB won by 2 runs !

Man Of The Match- CHRIS GAYLE

Match Report-

Before the match there was lots of talk about how Sachin and Ponting will bat together! While chasing RCB's 157 both started well, getting the timing right but there was hesitation between running between the wicket many times. At the end Sachin was run out. While Ponting was stumped by Arun Karthik on bowling of Murli Karthik. Another Kartik (Dinesh) from MI walked in and played awesome innings. He hit Christian for 3 consecutive sixes when the run rate required was 12+. It seemed that MI will knock those 17 runs required of 2 overs easily. Penultimate over was bowled by Unadkat who gave away just 7 runs, which meant MI required 10 of last over with Kartik, Rayudu on strike and guys like Pollard, Oram, Bhajji still to come. But real hero of this match Vinay Kumar delivered a perfect over. He took 2 wickets of both set batsmen in 2 consecutive balls. 8 required of last 2 balls, Pollard hit one for boundary but couldn't quite connect the last ball. RCB won the nail-biter match by 2 runs.

Earlier on MI decided to bowl first on seaming track of Banglore. They bowled pretty well, giving nothing away and taking wickets at regular interval. The debutant Bumrah removed Kohli, Agarwal and Nair, while Johnson, Bhajji took one wicket each. But they couldn't get the big man Gayle out of the way who scored fabulous 92 of just 58 balls with 11 fours and 5 sixes. At one stage RCB were looking down but heroics of Gayle though getting knee injury in between gave RCB a decent total to defend. During match collision with Bhajji was he reason of Gayle's injury. He didn't come out for fielding. He was declared Man Of The Match!

My Views-

MI performed good. But Ponting and Sachin need to talk about their running between the wickets. Also, when Malinga returns it will be a big boost for them. Ponting handled his troops well. Kartik played brilliantly. On the other side, RCB bowled superbly. Apart from that Daniel Christian over they hardly gave away runs. For RCB, the big positive will be they won without Zaheer and AB De Villiers. They will be a formidable side once they come in the playing XI! Well done RCB, Vinay Kumar and Gayle, Hats Off!!!