Bumrah claims 100 IPL wickets as Mumbai down Bangalore
Paceman Jasprit Bumrah reached 100 wickets in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday with the main element scalp of Virat Kohli and helped Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets.
Bumrah returned figures of 3-14 as holders Mumbai restricted Kohli's Bangalore to 164 for six and the batsmen achieved their target in Abu Dhabi to close in on a playoff spot.
Suryakumar Yadav smashed an unbeaten 79 to steer Mumbai home in 19.1 overs as he hit the winning boundary with stand-in-skipper Kieron Pollard at the other end on four.
"Bumrah continues to keep standing up throughout the tournament," Pollard said after Mumbai's eighth win this year. "But again we've been playing total team cricket. Somebody is always there to get the slack. Imagine someone (Yadav) batting at that strike rate after two early wickets. Deep down inside he should be very, very disappointed never to have donned the blue for India."
Table-toppers Mumbai is on 16 points from 12 games and needs a win from their remaining two matches to verify their place in the ultimate four. Bangalore is second with 14 points.
Yadav kept calm despite wickets falling around him as he hit 10 fours and three sixes in his 43-ball knock that included a 51-run stand with Hardik Pandya who made 17. Earlier Bangalore began briskly with openers Devdutt Padikkal, who top-scored with 74, and Josh Philippe putting on 71 runs after being placed into bat first.
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal broke the stand with the wicket of Philippe for 33. Bumrah referred to as India's yorker king soon took to send Kohli trudging back again to the pavilion for nine and reach a hundred years of IPL wickets in 89 matches.
He struck again twice in a maiden to take his IPL wicket count to 102 including 20 this season, which is led by Delhi Capitals quick Kagiso Rabada who has 23 scalps.
Veteran Sri Lankan paceman Lasith Malinga is IPL's leading bowler with 170 wickets despite taking out of this virus-hit season because of family commitments.
Pollard bowled just one single over of his medium pace but got the prized scalp of in-form AB de Villiers for 15.
"I am big on match-ups in ways. I also watch a whole lot of cricket. I took a punt and bowled at AB," said Pollard. "I possibly could have waited for the last over but if someone must go for runs I decided to take it."
