IPL Turning Point: Middle-overs meltdown continues Mumbai's winless run
At 49/0 after 6 overs with a run rate of 8.16, Mumbai Indians were in a decent position to get to a big total against Royal Challengers Bangalore at MCA Stadium on Saturday. Their openers, captain Rohit Sharma and wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan had to be quiet for the first three overs. But were able to hit a boundary each as the three overs phase yielded 13 runs with David Willey and Mohammed Siraj finding some early swing from a bit of a green pitch.
From the fourth over onwards, boundaries began to come quickly for Mumbai. Sharma teed off by dancing down the pitch to launch a six over long-on off Siraj. He followed it up by flicking a full toss through mid-wicket.
For the first time in this tournament, Sharma looked to get runs quickly. At the other end, Kishan welcome leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga with back-to-back boundaries and Sharma added one more boundary in the fifth over. Sharma signed off from power-play by timing a beautiful cover drive off Akash Deep.
But post-power-play, the match went downhill for Mumbai as Bangalore fought back in the middle overs. Sharma tried to flick a slower delivery, the off-cutter from Harshal Patel, and a leading-edge flew back to the bowler.
Dewald Brevis, the young under-19 sensation, was troubled by Deep beating him with movement twice as well as bounce. Brevi' unsure stay at the crease came to an end when he went on backfoot to counter a googly from Hasaranga, only for the ball turning in to trap him plumb lbw.
The quiet phase maintained by Bangalore turned into panic mode for Mumbai as Kishan tried to ramp a short ball from Deep and was caught at the deep third man running to his right.
Four balls later, Tilak Varma ran for a non-existent single through the off-side. But Glenn Maxwell fired a fine under-arm throw, diving from short cover to catch the young left-handed batter short of his crease.
After a double-wicket maiden tenth over, Hasaranga increased Mumbai's troubles when he slipped in a googly sharply turning in to trap Kieron Pollard plumb lbw for a golden duck.
Pollard went for the review but couldn't change the decision as the umpire's call showed the ball hitting the top of bails. This was a proper slowdown affected by Bangalore's bowling attack as Mumbai lost five wickets for just 12 runs in the last 3.5 overs.
Debutant all-rounder Ramandeep Singh poked at slower outside off delivery from Patel and took a feather edge behind to the keeper for a low catch, leaving Mumbai at 79/6 in 13.2 overs and in deep trouble.
Though Suryakumar Yadav slammed a gem of a knock with an unbeaten 68 off 37 balls as Mumbai amassed 59 runs in last five overs at the run-rate of 11.80, it couldn't make up for the damage done in the middle overs, where 43 runs came for the loss of six wickets at a run rate of 4.77.