Sports desk
Islamabad
A drier-than-usual Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch produced a low-scoring contest that included a 59-ball spell without a boundary and a Powerplay hat-trick by a legspinner.
That legspinner, Samuel Badree, took 4 for 9 on his Royal Challengers Bangalore debut, and at the end of his four-over quota, Mumbai Indians, chasing 143, were 33 for 5 in eight overs.
Badree, though, was to end up on the losing side. The match-winner was another Trinidadian, Kieron Pollard, who scored a brilliantly calculated 70 off 47 balls and added 93 for the sixth wicket with Krunal Pandya to consign Royal Challengers to their third defeat in four games.
Kohli and Gayle make ponderous start
A shoulder injury had kept Virat Kohli out of action for nearly a month, but showed no signs of rust when he hit a six and two fours off Tim Southee in the third over of Royal Challengers’ innings. Perhaps the most important ball of that over, however, was a dot – the last ball, to Gayle. Southee bowled it cross-seam, Gayle left it alone, and the ball kept low and bounced a second time before reaching the keeper.
Both captains had mentioned at the toss – Mumbai won it and chose to bowl – that the pitch seemed drier than usual, and Mumbai’s bowlers quickly cottoned on. Harbhajan Singh bowled in the Powerplay to specifically target Gayle – before this match, he had conceded 65 off 65 to the Jamaican in the IPL, while dismissing him three times – and the seamers bowled cutters into the pitch, and found the two-paced pitch to their liking.
Aside from that Southee over, only the really bad ball went to the boundary, and Royal Challengers were 66 for 1 at the 10-over mark. Gayle fell in the 10th over for 22 off 27 balls.
