Fit-again Virat Kohli key to RCB’s fortunes against Mumbai

For Mumbai, McClenaghan scalped two wickets for 20 runs in four overs while Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya chipped in with one wicket each.

Pune, though, would get some momentum at the end of their innings as Manoj Tiwary managed to score 29 from just 11 deliveries, a knock which would go on to be a priceless one. Head to Head Overall: Matches played – 2, RCB Won – 2, RPS Won – 0 Trivia RCB had the highest overall run-rate in IPL 2016 – 9.63.

The likes of Shardul Thakur (3/35), Imran Tahir (1/27), Ben Stokes (3/18) and Jaydev Unadkat (2/25) kept the pressure on for the entire duration bowling. Both the teams had good bowling plans – wide yorkers to Dhoni, straight to de Villiers – and executed them well. Virat Kohli should replace Vishnu Vinod, which means Kedar Jadhav will take over the gloves. Steven Smith is too in a very good form. Only seven boundaries were hit by them.

The first 10 produced 66 for RCB with 95 required off back 10.

Pollard celebrated reaching his fifty with a six by striking another off Pawan Negi’s next ball and by the time he fell, holing out to De Villiers attempting to clear the rope again, the tide had turned against Bangalore.

In Kohli’s absence, South African AB de Villiers made his presence felt in the previous game against Kings XI Punjab, when he smashed his way to an unbeaten 89 off just 46 balls to help RCB post a respectable 148-4 on his comeback after recovering from an injury.

Pune understood the surface had become quite slow midway through the first innings. It was all over for RCB by then.

Rising Pune Supergiant meanwhile enjoy a five-day break after this match; their next fixture is the home tie against Sunrisers Hyderabad, scheduled for April 22. They had lost all nine!

That might be strictly hindsight: Rising Pune sent out even Dan Christian ahead of Tiwary. Rahul Tripathi regularly hit over the top, while Ajinkya Rahane used the pace and worked the ball square or behind square on both sides of the wicket.

Rahane hit a flurry of boundaries off the pacers Adam Milne (2/27) and Watson before a googly from Samuel Badree cleaned him up.

Kohli and Smith – the two premier batsmen in world cricket will be desperate to change the script for their respective teams.

The big Jamaican is easily the most unsafe player for RCB, but that is only when the ball comes on to the bat. Pollard clubbed three more sixes before he finally departed in the 18th over, for a 47-ball 70, which included five sixes and three fours. Thankfully for RPS, such collapse did not hurt them much if one looks at the match result.

Chances of Gayle also getting dropped for the second time are rife as the team management could consider fielding Shane Watson, who can bowl and bat, compared to the West Indian who hardly bowls of late.