Captain Rohit Sharma led from the front with an unbeaten half-century to steer Mumbai Indians to a hard-earned five-wicket victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore, in Mumbai, on Monday.
Rohit hit 56 from 37 balls, laced with six fours and a six, to take Mumbai to 165 for five in reply to RCB's 162 for eight as the hosts won with a ball to spare.
It was another disappointing performance from the star-studded RCB, who are very much out of contention for a play-off berth following their eighth loss in 11 matches, while Mumbai claimed their eighth win in 11 games, which also sees them jump to the top of the IPL standings.
Fittingly, Rohit hit the winning runs, a cracking drive past mid-off. It was one of the six boundaries he hit alongside a maximum.
The quick start to the chase was provided by Jos Buttler (33 off 21) and Nitish Rana (27 off 28) after Parthiv Patel was out for a duck off the first ball of the innings, to left-arm pacer Aniket Choudhary.
Mitchell McClenaghan claimed three wickets as Mumbai Indians produced a disciplined bowling performance to restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to a modest 162 for five.
Besides McClenaghan (3/34), Krunal Pandya (2/34) took two wickets, while Karn Sharma (1/23) and Jasprit Bumrah (1/33) accounted for wicket apiece after RCB skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat.
For RCB, AB de Villiers (43) emerged as the top-scorer after he blasted three fours and as many sixes during his 27-ball innings, while Pawan Negi (35) and Kedar Jadhav (28) provided the late charge to take the team past the 150-run mark.
Electing to bat, RCB lost their first wicket in the fourth over when Mandeep Singh (17) went for the slog sweep and was caught by Hardik Pandya.
In the sixth over, McClenaghan removed Virat Kohli (20) when the RCB skipper flicked a slower ball straight to short midwicket and Rohit Sharma took a simple catch as the visitors slipped to 40 for two.
New man AB de Villiers then blasted McClenaghan over backward point for a four before sending him over sweeper cover for a maximum as RCB scored 52 for two in the Powerplay overs.
The South African gave Krunal Pandya the same treatment as RCB accumulated 13 runs off the ninth over.
After 10 overs, they were 80 for 2 but Travis Head (12) holed out to Hardik at deep midwicket and RCB slumped to 85-3.
De Villiers brought up RCB's 100 with a six off Krunal over the square leg boundary but was dismissed in the next delivery by the bowler for the fourth time in as many meetings.
Shane Watson's poor run continued and he went down cheaply again to leave RCB struggling at 108 for five, in the 14th over.
Negi and Jadhav then steadied the innings, taking ones and twos, to keep the scoreboard ticking before the former finally exploded in the 18th over, producing a couple of sixes off Lasith Malinga over extra cover and long-off, before smashing maximum over long-on boundary in the next over to bring up 150.
The final over yielded just five runs as McClenaghan dismissed Negi and Jadhav off successive deliveries, while Sreenath Aravind ran himself out while looking for a bye off the last ball.
