Pune: A sublime 66 from wicketkeeper-batter Anuj Rawat led Royal Challengers Bangalore to a seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in match 18 of IPL 2022 at MCA Stadium on Saturday.
After Suryakumar Yadav lifted Mumbai from 79/6 to 151/6, Bangalore chased down the target with nine balls remaining. Rawat was ably supported by Virat Kohli’s 48 as Mumbai endured misfields, dropped catches and overthrows to crash to their fourth loss of the tournament.
Bangalore had a sedate power-play, with 30 runs coming in for no loss. Rawat launching back-to-back sixes on both sides of the ‘v’ off Jaydev Unadkat were the only boundaries in the first six overs. Mumbai tried hard for wickets, which included bringing in two overs of Jasprit Bumrah. But they couldn’t take out either Rawat or a circumspect Faf du Plessis.
Bangalore got a move on when Rawat slog-swept a full toss from Murugan Ashwin over square leg, followed by du Plessis driving through long-off as 15 runs came off the seventh over. Mumbai finally struck in the ninth over when du Plessis holed out to long-on off Unadkat.
Rawat and Kohli took a boundary each off Ashwin in the 11th over to keep Bangalore in the hunt. Kohli then flicked Basil Thampi through mid-wicket followed by Rawat producing a beautiful whipped six over square leg and a cracking cut through backward point to take 15 runs off the over.
Rawat brought up his maiden IPL fifty in 38 balls while Kohli pulled Jasprit Bumrah between long-on and deep mid-wicket. He earned a reprieve at 30 when Dewald Brewis dropped a catch at deep backward square leg and allowed the ball to go through his legs for a boundary.
Rawat slammed sixes off Pollard and Unadkat over deep backward square leg and mid-wicket before his knock ended at 66 via a direct hit from Ramandeep Singh at mid-on. Kohli fell lbw to Brevis while trying to defend.
Dinesh Karthik slammed a pull over mid-wicket off Bumrah while Glenn Maxwell applied the finishing touches with back-to-back fours through backward point and cover off Brevis to hand Bangalore their third win.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 151/6 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 68 not out, Rohit Sharma 26; Harshal Patel 2/23, Wanindu Hasaranga 2/28) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 152/3 in 18.3 overs (Anuj Rawat 66; Virat Kohli 48; Dewald Brevis 1/8, Jaydev Unadkat 1/30) by seven wickets
(IANS)
