New Delhi: Virat Kohli-led RCB rose to the fifth spot on the IPL table with a 14-run win over MI on Tuesday at Bangalore. Before the match, RCB and MI were stuck at 6th and 7th spot respectively. However, with this win, RCB have garnered 6 points from 8 games while MI continue to hang just over DD at the seventh spot with 2 wins from 8 games.
While RCB still have their hopes alive of qualifying for the playoffs but the road for MI has become very tricky and a miracle only can help them to qualify for playoffs.
1.CSK 8 6 2 0 0 12 0.553
2 SRH 8 6 2 0 0 12 0.514
3 KXIP 7 5 2 0 0 10 0.228
4 KKR 8 4 4 0 0 8 0.110
5 RCB 8 3 5 0 0 6 -0.301
6 RR 7 3 4 0 0 6 -0.751
7 MI 8 2 6 0 0 4 -0.059
8 DD 8 2 6 0 0 4 -0.509
On Tuesday, when RCB put up a team show to reach a competitive 167 on a tricky pitch, MI lacked cohesiveness and paid for it. Hardik proved to be a single man army for MI but his solo efforts weren't enough to take his side home.
In both batting and bowling, Hardik played his part in the later part of each innings but Mumbai, as a unit, failed to rally alongside him. In the end, it was RCB who returned to winning ways collecting their third win beating MI by 14 runs. With this win, RCB have improved their head-to-head count against MI by 2-4.
While credit be given to RCB batters, especially Manan Vohra (45), Virat Kohli (32), Brendon McCullum (37) and Colin de Grandhomme (23) for gritting it out, it was the bowling that stood up collectively to ensure RCB returned to winning ways. Bowling has been a thorn in RCB's flesh but on Tuesday, Umesh Yadav (2-29), Tim Southee (2-25) and Mohammed Siraj (2-28) combined together in pinning MI.
