Anuj Rawat scored a sparkling 66 as the Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated the Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Saturday.
After being asked to bat first by RCB skipper, openers Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma got Mumbai off to a steady start.
The duo added 50 runs for the opening wicket before the latter chipped a Harshal Patel’s slower delivery back to the bowler for 26.
Dewald Brevis (8) was then trapped leg before wicket by Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva.
Kishan while trying to take on Akash Deep was caught at third man by Mohammed Siraj for 26.
In the same over, Tilak Varma (0) was run out by a brilliant under arm direct hit by Glenn Maxwell at short cover.
Mumbai slipped even further, when Kieron Pollard was trapped leg before wicket by a Hasaranga googly for a first ball duck.
Debutant Ramandeep Singh (6) fell cheaply edging a Harshal Patel delivery behind the wickets, leaving Mumbai in tatters at 79/6.
However Suryakumar Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat bailed MI out of trouble with a valuable unbeaten 72 run stand for the sixth wicket to take their side to a respectable score of 151/6 in their allotted 20 overs.
For RCB, Hasaranga and Harshal Patel claimed 2 wickets each.
Chasing 152, Bangalore got off to steady as openers Faf Du Plessis and Anuj Rawat added 50 runs for the opening wicket, before the former holed to long on by Suryakumar Yadav off Jaydev Unadkat for 16.
Rawat was involved in a 80 run stand for the second wicket along with Virat Kohli before the former was run out by a brilliant direct hit from Ramandeep for a 47 ball-66.
Kohli who was dropped at deep midwicket boundary off Thampi, was finally dismissed leg before wicket by Brevis for 48.
Glenn Maxwell came in and slammed consecutive boundaries as RCB overhauled the target with 9 balls to spare.
Anuj Rawat was adjudged the Player of the Match.