All star of the match

Rohit Sharma helps Mumbai dominate Bangalore

Mumbai's captain, Rohit Sharma, smashed a 44-ball 62 to help his side register their first home win of the 2016 season, as they comfortably beat Bangalore by six wickets in the Indian Twenty20 competition in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Mumbai's captain, Rohit Sharma, smashed a 44-ball 62 to help his side register their first home win of the 2016 season, as they comfortably beat Bangalore by six wickets in the Indian Twenty20 competition in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first, but Bangalore's powerful top order - even without the hard hitting Chris Gayle - was a formidable sight for Mumbai. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul made the most of favourable batting conditions, as Rahul thumped two fours and two sixes before he was dismissed in the fourth over for 23 from 14 balls.
His departure brought AB de Villiers to the fore and he joined Kohli to help their side motor along at over nine runs an over in the 6.3 overs they batted together. Krunal Pandya then broke the 59-run stand and dismissed Kohli, against the run of play, for 33.
Four-balls later, Pandya foxed de Villiers - in the flight - as he looked to drive and had him be stumped for 33. The double blow pegged Bangalore - who looked good at that stage to post a sizeable par 200 total - on the back foot. Instead, they managed just 170 in their 20 overs.
Sharma, with scores of 5, 7, 84 and 7 in the competition so far, began cautiously and added just seven runs from the first eight balls he faced. But he cut loose thereafter and thumped Kane Williamson for two boundaries in the fourth over, to signal the gear-switch. He then clobbered Varun Aaron for a six and two fours in the fifth.
Sharma's 76-run stand for the second wicket with Ambati Rayadu set Mumbai on course to register their first win at home. Iqbal Abdullah, Bangalore's spinner, was the pick of their bowlers and claimed three wickets - including that of Sharma - in his four over spell.
Despite his heroics, Mumbai ended the chase with 12 balls to spare. Sharma, the Man of the match, thumped four fours and three sixes in his match-winning knock. "I think this is the kind of game we wanted to play. Bowlers did an excellent job, to restrict a team like that to 170. There wasn't much there. Especially the spinners - Krunal Pandya, getting those wickets, even Harbhajan Singh," Sharma said.
"The things we discussed in our meetings, we executed it really well. If you look at last year's performance, there was hardly any batsmen in the top five [run-getters], which shows it was a team effort. The way Buttler and Pollard played today, they are match-winners for their respective countries, we know exactly what they can do, and credit goes to Rayudu as well, he batted brilliantly in the middle."