Southee stars as RCB down Mumbai Indians
Tim Southee’s spectacular show with the ball helped Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in registering a 14-run win against Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday.
The match started with Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma winning the toss and opting to field first. His decision seemed an incorrect one as the hosts reached to 121 in the 15th over at the expense of just three wickets and looked set for a total in excess of 180.
However, visitors made a grand comeback in the last five our and restricted RCB to a total of 167 for seven in their allotted 20 overs.Young opener Manan Vohra finished the innings with the top score of 45 off 31 balls with the help of two fours and four sixes. He was well supported by former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum and RCB captain Virat Kohli, who scored 37 and 35 off 25 and 26 balls respectively.
For the visitors, the star in the bowling department was pacer Hardik Pandya, who claimed figures of three for 28.
In reply, Mumbai had a horrid beginning as they lost first four wickets just 47 runs inside the first eight overs. A 37-run partnership between veteran all-rounder JP Duminy and Pandya kept the team in the tie, but the former departed in the 12th over.
From there on, Krunal Pandya along with his brother Hardik scored 56-run for the sixth-wicket partnership kept Mumbai in the hunt, but with run-rate increasing at a rapid pace, Rohit Sharma-led unit could keep up the pace and were restricted to 153 for seven in their 20 overs.Pandya finished the innings with the top score of 50 off 42 balls with the help of five fours and one six.
For RCB, pacers Southee, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammad Siraj claimed two wickets each.
