Five Dots to Malinga

NEWS / Five Dots to Malinga

Lasith Malinga bowled five dots at AB de Villiers.

10 May 2015, Wankhede Stadium. Virat Kohli won the toss and batted. Mumbai had brought Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah back in. Chris Gayle made 13 off 12 and was caught at fine leg by Lendl Simmons off Malinga. Bangalore 20 for 1. De Villiers walked in. Malinga finished a wicket-maiden. Five dots. No run. For four overs the night still belonged to the home attack.

Mumbai had already dropped Kohli on 6. Harbhajan Singh, at slip. That miss sat under everything that followed. Kohli stayed for 82 not out off 50. De Villiers stayed for 133 not out off 59. Nineteen fours. Four sixes. Strike-rate 225.42. Unbroken 215 off 101 balls for the second wicket, then a Twenty20 record. Bangalore 235 for 1, highest total of that season. Mumbai 196 for 7. Won by 39.

His first runs were square, two fours off Jagadeesha Suchith’s left-arm spin, the tenth ball he faced. Harbhajan’s first over ended with a four and a six. After ten overs Bangalore were 88 for 1, still a chaseable night in Mumbai. They took 147 off the second ten. Hardik Pandya went for 51 in three overs. Bumrah went for 52. De Villiers’ fifty came off 29 balls. The hundred came off 47: two sixes off Bumrah, the second the landmark, Kohli meeting him in the middle of the pitch. He swept Malinga to midwicket. The Wankhede, which had come to watch Mumbai, chanted de Villiers’ name.

His previous IPL hundred had been 109 not out in Durban in 2009. Six years. After the match he said he had hit the ball cleaner before, but that things had gone his way. Kohli said he had not expected 235 after six overs, and that it had been memorable watching from the other end. Simmons made 68 not out in the chase. Kieron Pollard 49. It was not enough.

AB de Villiers’ 133 not out against Mumbai Indians, IPL 2015. If the player does not load, open it on YouTube.

Watch de Villiers 133* on YouTube ↗

Five dots. Then the rest of the card.