Mehul Bhattacharya: Mumbai Indians pulled off a thrilling chase to win by 4 wickets against the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) today, as Kieron Pollard bowled and batted brilliantly to guide them over the line. The game saw fantastic batting from both ends, as Mumbai finally triumphed with a double off the last ball of their innings.
CSK went out to bat first in the clash, which promised to be an interesting game right from the start. The very first over saw Gaikwad lose his wicket via a catch, but it didn’t seem to make much of a dent on their powerplay hopes, as du Plessis and Moeen Ali played some great shots to guide them to 49/1 in 6 overs. The pair struck up a 100+ run partnership by the 11th over, however it came to an end in the very same over when Ali was caught behind by Dhoni. The very next over from Kieron Pollard saw du Plessis as well as Raina depart via catches off the last two deliveries. Ambati Rayudu played a blitzing knock of 72 with Jadeja accompanying him at the other end to lead CSK to a strong total of 218/4 in 20 overs. For Mumbai Indians, Pollard took 2 wickets.
MI got off to a relatively good start in the first few overs, with some heavy hitting from Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock seeing them reach a powerplay score of 58/0 in 6 overs. The wickets started falling soon enough though, as Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Quinton de Kock all departed in quick fashion. Krunal Pandya and Pollard went on to set up a game-changing partnership which saw Pollard bat out of his skin, hitting sixes left right and centre, however Mumbai’s chances were dented by a brilliant 17th over from Sam Curran, which saw him go for 2 runs and pick up Krunal Pandya’s wicket as well. Moving into the last two overs, MI needed 31 to win. The penultimate over saw 2 wickets and 15 runs from it, but in the end, Pollard guided MI to 219/6 in 20 overs, getting the win in the process.