Bangalore stifle Mumbai

Lily

B.R
Staff member
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Dubai: Royal Challengers Bangalore restricted Mumbai Indians to 139 runs in the final of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament at the MA Chidambaram Stadium yesterday.

Bangalore skipper Daniel Vettori's two wickets and Raju Bhatkal, with a tight three-wicket spell backed by some excellent fielding, tied down the Mumbai batsmen, three of whom also got run out including James Franklin, top-scorer with 41 runs.

Mumbai elected to bat but lost opener Aiden Blizzard, run out in the second over to a terrible mix-up. Sarul Kanwar, who began by hitting the first six of the match in the first over off Tillakaratne Dilshan, simply refused to run for a shot after Blizzard played to mid off.

Ambati Rayudu joined Kanwar, who began to time his shots well. He even hit Sreenath Aravind over extra cover for a boundary but Dirk Nannes put an end to his knock, clean bowling him for 13 with a swinging delivery timed at 148kph.

With both openers back in the pavilion for 24 runs in the fourth over, the mantle of lifting Mumbai out of trouble fell on James Franklin and Rayudu. Franklin went for his shots and hit Aravind for a well-timed six to mid wicket and followed it up with a smashing cover drive for a boundary.

Vettori bowled a tight first over giving away just four runs. Raju Bhatkal too prevented the batsmen from taking any liberties. Rayudu hit the first ball of Vettori's second over for six to mid wicket but still could not get on top of the bowling as Bhatkal had him caught on 22 at extra while going for a big hit.

At the 10-over mark, Mumbai were 71 for 3 and hopes of a total over 150 looked bleak. Franklin was tied down with Chris Gayle bowling tight but ushered in Mumbai's 100 by hitting Vettori over midwicket. Both he and Yadv perished shortly thereafter.

A mini collapse from then on meant in the end Mumbai could muster only a run rate of 6.95 runs per over.
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