RCB's Samuel Badree claims hat-trick, but fellow West Indian dampens his effort by pulling Mumbai Indians out of the woods with match-winning 70
Kieron Pollard
Mumbai Indians' Kieron Pollard during his match-winning 70 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bangalore yesterday. Pic/AFP
Bangalore: If you ever needed proof that cricket in the West Indies has changed dramatically, look no further than Samuel Badree, a gentle leg-spinner from the land of big, fast men.
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Opening the bowling just like many illustrious West Indians of the past, but bowling in the region of 85-95 kmph rather than the 140-plus, Badree didn't spin the ball much. But he still turned the game between two batting powerhouses on its head with a hat-trick maiden.
But not even the hat-trick, which saw the fall of Parthiv Patel, the promoted Mitchell Mclenaghan and Rohit Sharma, in that order, was enough to stop the Mumbai Indians from winning the game by four wickets.
Special effort by Pollard
RCBâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088had put a modest 142-8 on the board alright but to recover from 48-5 in 10 overs needed some special effort. The sheer batting depth of the visitors came to the fore as they got over the line with seven balls and four wickets to spare.
The calming presence of the big-hitting Kieron Pollard along with the measured approach of Krunal Pandya did it for MI. Pollard and Pandya put on 93 runs for the sixth wicket to ensure that MIâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088continued their dominance over RCB at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Once the tumbling of wickets had been halted by some watchful batting, sixes rained off Pollard's big blade. His fall for 70 (47b, 3x4, 5x6) with MI still needing 17 of 15 balls, made no difference to the result as Krunal (37, 30b, 3x4, 1x6) stayed on to complete the job in the company of his brother Hardik.
Kohli returns
Earlier, save for two overs in the innings, one sent down by Tim Southee and the other bowled by Jasprit Bumrah, the RCB innings totally lacked in momentum. You can put it down to a combination of good, tight bowling and a sluggish pitch. Incidentally, the strip used yesterday was the one used during the India-Australia Test early last month, when too scoring runs had proved mighty tough.
By no yardstick are Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and ABâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088de Villiers everyday journeymen and yet, save for the returning Indian skipper, they too struggled. The timing that Kohli displayed even on such a track was simply magic.
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