IPL 2018: Sportzwiki's Man of the Match - Umesh Yadav

Indian pacer Umesh Yadav has been firing through all cylinders with the white ball in hand.

Playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore, the 30-year old has 11 wickets to his credit.

Even though his side have been struggling to win games, tonight’s win has come as a big relief for captain Virat Kohli.

Mumbai Indians failed to put up a decent score in power-play, losing three vital wickets, including that of skipper Rohit Sharma.

Umesh scalped two early wickets and was on a hat-trick in no time. Chasing a par score of 169 to win the game, only all-rounder Hardik Pandya stepped up.

Pandya hit a six and smashed five fours in his 42-ball 50-run inning. He failed to take his side over the line and got dismissed by Tim Southee. In the absence of AB de Villiers, Brendon McCullum had a major role to play, and he did score a 25-ball 37. He along with Manan Vohra helped RCB cross the fifty run-mark before Kohli and Colin de Grandhomme provided the finishing touch to the innings.

McCullum lauded Umesh’s spell, as the pacer bagged two wickets and ended with figures of 2/29 from his four overs.

McCullum lauds Umesh’s spell

“We’ve been close last few games, so today was important to get across the line. Something to give the fans. We bowled well last game as well, but today was outstanding. Umesh was outstanding and Southee at the end as well. The structure of our bowling is finally getting together. There is a huge amount of skill required to bowl in the death, so our guys were good with the cross-seamers and the slower balls. We wanted to stick together and play a good brand of cricket. Hopefully, the results are going to follow. We’re going one game at a time.” McCullum said after his side registered a 14-run win.