Mumbai, Apr 12 (PTI) Half-centuries from the top-order troika of Virat Kohli (50), Phil Salt (78) and Rajat Patidar (53) provided the impetus as Royal Challengers Bengaluru finished with a massive 240 for four against Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.
Salt and Kohli put on 120 for the first wicket while Patidar and Tim David (35 not out off 16 balls) produced rapid knocks in the second half to power the defending champions to a strong position.
The proceedings began with Kohli unleashing a spectacular flick off the pads to hit a flat six off Trent Boult over deep square leg. While Kohli kept picking the odd boundary, it was his partner Salt who took the initiative to accelerate the scoring rate.
At the start, the Englishman made room to hit fast bowlers Boult and Hardik Pandya for boundaries.
Boult was pulled into the stands with disdain for a six, while Mitchell Santner was pummelled for three consecutive sixes when the New Zealand captain erred with his lengths.
RCB’s charge — 50 came up in 4.2 overs — forced MI to bring back a wicketless Jasprit Bumrah for a second over in the powerplay which is not the norm.
The move did work as the pace ace allowed only six runs off the last over in the powerplay, but at the end RCB still were on top with 71 on board.
Salt took a liking for leg-spinner Mayank Markande in the eighth over to smack three consecutive fours, while Kohli went after Santner’s third over to hit two more.
Desperate for a breakthrough, Mumbai Indians finally turned to Shardul Thakur in the 11th over who had Salt caught by Pandya at cover for the first wicket, ending RCB’s opening partnership at 120.
Aided by some ordinary bowling, Patidar came close to equalling the record for fastest IPL half-century but eventually completed it off 17 balls.
He started off by lifting Shardul Thakur over cover for a four and cashed in on some poor lengths by Markande to smack the leg-spinner for three consecutive sixes. In no time, Patidar had raced to 34 off nine.
Desperate to stop leaking runs, Mumbai deployed Thakur to bowl the wide-of-the-off deliveries but he erred more often than not in nailing those.
Salt’s charge at the start followed by Patidar’s blitzkrieg in the middle overs allowed Kohli to farm the strike and bring up his half-century, following which he fell for a 37-ball 50 in the 15th over.
Having given away 22 runs in his first over, Santner kept it largely tight in his remaining overs and signed off with the wicket of Patidar, who made 53 off 20 balls with five sixes and four fours. PTI DDV UNG
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