Lendl Simmons and Unmukt Chand smashed strokeful half-centuries to power Mumbai Indians to an imposing 209 for seven against Royal Challengers Bangalore in an Indian Premier League match, here today.
Opening the batting Simmons made 59 off 44 balls with the help of nine boundaries and two sixes, while Unmukt smashed his way to 58 off just 37 balls which included eight fours and two hits over the fence to set the stage for Mumbai's score.
Skipper Rohit Sharma also played a 15-ball 42-run cameo to help Mumbai's cause. He clobbered the RCB bowlers to all parts of the ground and in the process hit three fours and four huge sixes.
Towards the end, young Hardik Pandya used his long handle to great effect to pile up unbeaten 16 runs off just six deliveries for Mumbai.
For RCB, debutant David Wiese was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 44 for 33 from his four overs, while young leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal picked up two wickets giving away 28 runs.
Rohit went hammer and tongs towards the end as Mumbai scored 77 runs in the last five overs of the innings before he was caught by Weise off his own bowling.
Sent into bat, Pathiv Patel and Simmons gave a solid start to Mumbai's innings putting on 47 runs for the opening wicket in 35 balls.
While Simmons looked at ease at the wicket, Parthiv looked a bit rusty.
The diminutive wicket-keeper batsman struck two sweetly timed boundaries during his short stay at the crease before he played on a David Wiese delivery on to the stumps in the sixth over.
Simmons cut lose in the second over when he smashed Varun Aaron for three consecutive boundaries.
The West Indian then turned on the hit on Abu Nechim Ahmed, hitting the bowler for two delightful boundaries in the next over.
After the loss of Patel, Simmons went into a shell but opened up in the ninth over onwards. He first clobbered left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah for a massive six and then repeated the shot against Aaron.
Simmons registered his fourth IPL fifty off just 36 balls. But soon after he top edged a Chahal delivery which was well taken by Aaron.
Unmukt, however, kept up the tempo. Soon after arriving at the crease he hammered Abdullah for two consecutive boundaries.
Chand notched up his first half century of thie year's IPL with a boundary of Wiese, but soon lost his cool and top-edged a Chahal delivery to RCB captain Virat Kohli at long-off.
