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Confident RCB eying another clinical outing against Mumbai
A confident Royal Challengers Bangalore would look to carry on their winning momentum when they take on title holders Mumbai Indians, who would be low on belief after the opening thrashing in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.
Star-studded RCB opened their IPL 7 campaign on a resounding note as they crushed a new-look Delhi Daredevils by eight wickets in Sharjah on Thursday.
Yuvraj Singh, who faced immense criticism after his disappointing knock in ICC World Twenty20 final, silenced his detractors with a brilliant unbeaten 52 and shared 84 runs in just 7.9 overs with captain Virat Kohli (49 not out) for the unconquered third wicket stand to help RCB chase down Daredevils' 145-run target with 20 balls to spare.
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Decent bowling attack
RCB's bowling was considered their weak link but against the Daredevils on Thursday, their bowlers did just enough to restrict the opponents to a modest 145 for four.
While Mitchell Starc generated pace upfront even though he went for a few runs, Albie Morkel and Varun Aaron were right on their money.
In fact Aaron (9 for one in 3 overs) bowled a misery spell but Bengal pacer Ashok Dinda leaked runs.
The star of the day was young leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who was adjudged man-of-the-match for his spell of 4-0-18-1.
Batting a concern for Mumbai
Mumbai Indians, on the other hand, have plenty of work to do both in their batting as well as bowling departments after their 41-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders in the tournament opener.
Barring Zaheer Khan (1/23) and the ever-reliable Lasith Malinga (4/23), Mumbai's bowling performance against KKR can be termed as pathetic.
On the batting front too, Mumbai lacked sting to chase down the 164-run target set by KKR.
Mumbai's batsmen seemed all at sea against West Indian mystery spinner Sunil Narine. It seemed they had no clue on how to take Narine who snared four wickets to rattle the defending champion's chase.
Apart from Ambati Rayudu (48), skipper Rohit Sharma (27) and Aditya Tare (24), no other Mumbai batsmen reached double digit scores, which would be a cause of concern for coach John Wright and mentor Sachin Tendulkar.