Paceman Jasprit Bumrah reached 100 wickets in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday with the key 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 season.
“But again we have been playing total team cricket. Somebody is always there to pick up the slack.
“Imagine someone (Yadav) batting at that strike rate after two early wickets. Deep down inside he must be very very disappointed to not to have donned the blue for India.”
Table-toppers Mumbai are on 16 points from 12 games and need a win from their remaining two matches to confirm their place in the final four. Bangalore are second with 14 points.
Bumrah, known as India’s yorker king, soon took over to send Kohli trudging back to the pavilion for nine and reach a century of IPL wickets in 89 matches. He struck again twice in a maiden over 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. (AFP)