Mumbai Indians (MI) Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) IPL 2016

Bengaluru: Mumbai Indians relied on a late assault from Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in their crucial IPL match and keep their hopes of a play-offs berth alive here on Wednesday. Chasing 152 for a win, Pollard and Buttler smashed unbeaten cameos of 35 and 29 respectively to share 55 runs from just 3.3 overs for the unbroken fifth wicket to take Mumbai home with eight balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Pollard smashed three fours and two sixes in his 19-ball unbeaten innings while Buttler hit one four and three sixes in his 11-ball unconquered knock as the duo struck a flurry of fours and sixes towards the end to take Mumbai home. Ambati Rayudu contributed a 47-ball 44 to keep Mumbai in the chase early on after captain Rohit Sharma (25) and Parthiv Patel (1) were out. Bangalore kept themselves into the match with some brilliant fielding as Stuart Binny and AB de Villiers took a stunning catch each but in the end the score they defended was found to be too small. Buttler hit the winning runs, a six, as Mumbai reached 153 for four in 18.4 overs to notch up their sixth win in 11 matches and jump to the fourth spot in the league table with 12 points. Bangalore, on the other hand, slumped to their sixth loss in 10 matches as they remained at sixth spot with eight points. They will now need to win all their remaining matches to have a chance of making it to the play-offs stage. Mumbai suffered an early jolt with Parthiv getting out in the second over with Sreenath Aravind inducing a thick edge from the batsman's bat for Shane Watson to take a regulation catch at first slip. Mumbai had captain Rohit Sharma at the other end and along with Rayudu steadied the innings with sensible batting. The visiting side were 39 for one at the end of powerplay overs and were cruising along before Rohit was dismissed at a crucial time. The Mumbai captain did not play his pull shot properly off Varun Aaron and de Villiers had an easy catch at the long-on. Earlier, RCB top-order misfired and the team could manage a score of only 151/4 in 20 overs. Skipper Virat Kohli (6), Chris Gayle (4), Shane Watson (15) and Abraham De Villiers (24) did not live up to the day and only lone ranger K.L. Rahul saved the day for Royal Challengers with a defiant 53-ball-68, remaining unbeaten. Losing Kohli and Gayle quickly, Royal Challengers lost the momentum to find themselves in a slow paced one-day international kind of situation. Even after six overs, RCB managed to score only 25/2. Despite being dropped in the last IPL match played at Bengaluru, Gayle is consistently continuing his 'unit score innings streak'. He misfired in the fourth over off Tim Southee to be caught on the long on. Though De Villiers looked promising after the early jolt RCB received with the loss of quick wickets, he too fizzled with a low score but managed to hit a six and a four. The same fate awaited Shane Watson (15). He looked formidable with a six and four but was caught short of the crease in a run-out effected by Rohit Sharma. It was Rahul who saved the day for Royal Challengers to put a somewhat decent total for the team. Proving to be a vital cog in the wheel, he played a responsible role, peppering his innings with four sixes and three fours. In the end, Sachin Baby joined Rahul in the final overs to salvage the innings for Royal Challengers. He hit a valuable 13-ball 25 loaded with two sixes and two fours. Altogether, RCB suffered 51 dot balls in the innings. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma made the most of the toss win. Except for Kieron Pollard who gave away 22 runs in one over, all the other MI bowlers maintained an enviable economy rate for a 20twenty match, which ranged between 3.75 to 8.75 runs in their quota of four overs. Krunal Pandya 1/15 exhibited the best bowling performance for MI with a economy of 3.75, followed by Tim Southee 1/27 with a rate of 6.75. Brief Scores Royal Challengers Bangalore: 151/4 in 20 overs (Lokesh Rahul 68 not out, Sachin Baby 25 not out; Hardik Pandya 1/15). Mumbai Indians: 153 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Ambati Rayudu 44, Kieron Pollard 35 not out; Varun Aaron 2/37). MI beat RCB by 6 wickets.