Starc, Pollard fire up in IPL

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Mitchell Starc and Kieron Pollard had a fiery confrontation as Mumbai Indians made it back-to-back wins in IPL 7, beating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 19 runs.

The West Indies allrounder, who had a heated confrontation with Australian David Warner earlier in the tournament, this time got under Starc’s skin in the latter stages of Mumbai’s innings.

A rapid bouncer from the left-arm of Starc whizzed past Pollard’s helmet in the 17^th over, followed by some advice from Starc on how to play an orthodox hook shot. Pollard would decline the gesture, dismissively waving the fast bowler back to his mark with the back of his glove.

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Next ball, something disturbed Pollard’s concentration, prompting him to back away to the leg-side as Starc entered his bowling stride. Whether Starc failed to see the retreating batsman or not is unknown, but the delivery continued, fired way down leg towards the batsman who had withdrawn from proceedings.

Feeling aggrieved, Pollard hurled his bat but fortunately for both parties, Pollard’s heave saw the bat thud into the ground only a few feet in front of him.

The umpires intervened, as did RCB captain Virat Kohli and Pollard’s West Indies team-mate Chris Gayle, cooling the fiery encounter in front of the raucous Mumbai crowd whose applause was only bettered when their hero Sachin Tendulkar flashed on the big screen, which he did moments later to examine his reaction to the events in the middle. From the looks of it, he thought it was quite amusing.

Pollard would be run out for 43, by Starc, and with Rohit Sharma (59) muscled Mumbai to 5-187 from 20 overs.

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Bangalore made a fist of the chase, reaching 1-94 in the 10^th over through the combined efforts of Chris Gayle (38), Parthiv Patel (26) and Kohli (35), but the wicket of Gayle before the midpoint of the innings and the dismissal of AB de Villiers for only nine robbed the momentum from the visitors.

When Yuvraj Singh was run out soccer-style by Pollard in his follow through, RCB lost their last recognised batsmen for six, still requiring 56 runs from 27 balls.

Spearhead Lasith Malinga put the result beyond doubt with two wickets at the death, sealing the 19-run win and with it Mumbai’s elevation to sixth on the ladder, now only one win behind fourth spot currently occupied by their latest victims.