IPL: Royal Challengers Bangalore ease to victory over Mumbai Indians

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Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell set Royal Challengers Bangalore on the way to a 54-run win over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League in Dubai.

Kohli made 51 from 42 balls and Maxwell 56 from 37 to lift Bangalore to 165-6.

Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock added 57 for the first wicket in the Mumbai chase, but Maxwell's 2-23 checked the progress of the defending champions.

Pace bowler Harshal Patel then claimed the first hat-trick of this IPL to dismiss Mumbai for 111.

Harshal, the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, had Hardik Pandya sky to extra cover, bowled Kieron Pollard with a clever slower ball then pinned Rahul Chahar lbw.

Bangalore stay third, on course for the play-offs, with Mumbai seventh and in danger of missing out.

With the top four going through to the knockout stage, Mumbai are one of four teams level on eight points, tussling for the final spot.

They have won the past two editions of the IPL, but have now suffered three consecutive defeats since this tournament was restarted in the United Arab Emirates.

This was also a victory for Kohli, who is to step down as India Twenty20 captain after the World Cup, over Rohit, his likely successor.

Kohli, also in his last season as Bangalore skipper, became only the fifth batsman to pass 10,000 Twenty20 runs after Chris Gayle, Mumbai's Pollard, Shoaib Malik and David Warner.

He added 68 for the second wicket with Srikar Bharat, who made 32, then 51 with the third for Maxwell.

Maxwell's off-spin dovetailed with the leg-spin of Yuzvendra Chahal to account for the first four Mumbai wickets to fall.

The game was as good as won when Harshal's brilliance gave him the first IPL hat-trick since 2019, and he took the final wicket to finish with 4-17.

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