Pollard steals 5 wickets win for Mumbai Indians over Royal Challengers Bangalore

Once again the 5th bowler absence caused Royal Challengers Bangalore the game, which they could have easily won. Pollard heroics at the end helped Mumbai Indians a 5 wicket win and gain two crucial points to reach to second position in the points table.

Mumbai Indians won the toss and decided to field first. Big guns like Gayle, Kohli and de Villiers couldn't fire, Dilshan tried to hang in their with his 47 in 50 balls but was not completely at his best. Mayank Agarwal rose to the occasion and made his first half-century of IPL. He remained unbeaten at 64 in 30 balls. RCB gave the target of 171 runs to Mumbai.

Mumbai's start was also poor with their top 3 batsmen failing to contribute and all was left to Rayudu and Pollard to consolidate. Rayudu played a gem of an innings of 81 in 54 balls in which he hit 6 fours and 4 sixes. But it was Pollard who did the damage. When he entered the pitch required run rate was 12. But he smashed Appanna and Gayle and rest of the bowlers all over the ground. He made 52 in just 31 balls. 14 runs were needed in the last over and RCB didn't had any regular bowler to bowl so it was left to Gayle but Pollard hit him for 1 six and couple of fours to reach the target with two balls to spare.

The 62nd match of the IPL was played at M. Chinnaswamy stadium of Bangalore.

With this win Mumbai Indians have 18 points and are at present at 2nd position in points table. RCB will have to win their next two matches, as the competition is very fierce.