Internet Desk: Brilliant power hitting from Kieron Pollard (51* off 17 balls) and a captains’ knock from Rohit Sharma (68* from 49 balls) helped Mumbai Indians comfortably cruise to a 6 wickets win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede stadium on Thursday.
Mumbai Indians were in a spot on 126/4 after 15 overs, as they still required 49 runs to win off 30 balls. But the strongly built Trinidadian had other ideas as he just unleashed a brutal attack on the Knight Riders bowlers to take the match away. It was indeed a memorable knock from Pollard who was playing his 100th match in IPL. His innings had 6 sixes and 2 fours. Rohit too played his part contributing 68* from 49 balls. Both of them put on an unbeaten partnership of 72 runs of only 30 balls to guide Mumbai Indians to a brilliant win in their last match in Mumbai.
The win takes Mumbai Indians to the third position in IPL points table with 8 points from 8 matches while Knight Riders is placed at second spot with 8 points from 6 matches.
Pollard started his power hitting with a straight six off Sathish. He followed it up with two more big hits in the same over, hitting the medium pacer over mid wicket fence. Sathish went for 23 runs in the 16th over bowled by him.
Rohit Sharma too brilliantly paced his innings. The Mumbai Indians captain after playing three dot balls from Narine swept him for his seventh boundary.
Pollard on the other end was in no mood to relax as he hit his fourth six sending Unadkat into the mid wicket stands. He followed it up with another six over long on. The Caribbean scored the winning shot hitting a six over long off. It also brought up his half century. He remained not out on 51* off 17 balls with six sixes and two fours.
Rohit Sharma got Mumbai Indians off to a great start as he pulled Jaydev Unadkat for a six in the first over. Umesh Yadav who shared the new ball for KKR got a strike off his first delivery as he induced Parthiv Patel for an edge. Parthiv was caught at slips by Pathan for 1 run. Rayudu, started off brilliantly scoring a four off the first ball he faced.
Ambati Rayudu coming in at No 3 started on a positive note hitting Shakib for a straight boundary and followed it up with a flat six over mid wicket.
Rohit also kept on scoring at brisk rate as he hit Umesh Yadav for a couple of boundaries. Rohit was very aggressive against Unadkat as he hit him for another six. Rayudu also pulled him for another boundary. Unadkat went for 19 runs in his second over.
Both Rayudu and Rohit stitched a partnership of 59 runs in only 34 balls. Mumbai Indians raced to 64 runs in the powerplay.
Shakib gave a very important breakthrough for Knight Riders as Rayudu perished trying to hit him for a six only to be brilliantly caught by Yadav at the boundary. Rayudu played his part scoring a brisk 30 runs off 20 balls that included 5 fours and a six. Mumbai Indians was 67/2.
Krunal Pandya who came in next did not last long as he was bowled by Narine for 6 runs.Mumbai Indians was 85/3 at the half way stage.
Buttler coming in at No 4 played an exquisite square cut off Russell to pick his first boundary. Rohit too pulled the Caribbean in the same over for another hit to the fence. The MI captain reached his second half century against KKR off 36 balls.
Chris Lynn pulled off a brilliant catch at the boundary to get rid of dangerous looking Buttler for 15 runs. Mumbai Indians was 106/4 after 13 over.
In came Pollard to join Rohit at the crease and together they put on a match winning partnership of 72 runs to take Mumbai home with 12 balls to spare.
Riding on a half century scored by captain Gautam Gambhir , Knight Riders posted a competitive 174/5.
Gambhir scored his third fifty of the season and put on 69 runs for the opening wicket with Robin Uthappa.
The Knight Riders captain was lucky as he was dropped by ‘purple cap’ holder Mitchell McClenaghan off his own bowling. The Kiwi pacer went for 11 runs in his first over.
Robin Uthappa hit two fours off Southee’s second over after Gambhit hit one as the duo scored 17 runs in the third.
Uthappa hit the first six of the match sending Jasprit Bumrah into the stands in the fifth over.
Harbhajan Singh was introduced early in the sixth and Uthappa hit a six in the turbunators second ball to take KKR to fifty in just 5.2 overs. Knight Riders raced to 59 runs without any loss in the powerplay. Gambhir and Uthappa also reached a milestone by becoming the second best opening pair of the IPL, as they completed 1200 runs as a pair and put on their fourth fifty-run stand of the season.
Harbhajan gave Mumbai Indians the first breakthrough in the eighth over, when he dismissed Uthappa for 36. The KKR opener was caught by Keiron Pollard at long-on while trying to smack the full toss out of the park and mistimed it. Uthappa scored 36 off 20 balls with a four and two sixes.
Hardik Pandya gave MI a double breakthrough as he induced a edge from Shakib to Parthiv. The Bangladesh all rounder could only manage to score 6 runs.Knight Riders was 77/2 in 8.5 overs.
The Knight Riders was 87/2 at mid innings and looked well on course to scoring 200 runs.
Gambhir, trying to increase the tempo, mishit McClenaghan’s short delivery and gave away a simple catch to Pollard at mid-off. Gambhir played a captain’s knock of 59 in 45 balls, which included a six and six fours, as he set a good platform (121/3 in 13.5 overs) for his remaining batsmen to make a late charge. Gambhir also added a quick 44 runs for the third wicket with Suryakumar in five overs.
KKR lost another wicket in quick time, as Southee came back to dismiss Suryakumar for 21, whose top-edge resulted in a simple caught & bowled chance for the Kiwi pacer. So again, KKR lost two wickets in a bundle, this time for ten runs in two overs. Andre Russell kept the scorecard running as he smacked three fours in four balls off Bumrah’s 17th over, but he was clean bowled by Southee in the next over for 22. Yusuf Pathan hit Southee for consecutive fours immediately as the pacer completed his four overs with two for 38 runs.
Pathan remained unbeaten on 19 off eight balls, hitting four boundaries and scored 29 runs in the final 2.4 overs for the visitors with Chris Lynn, who scored run-a-ball 10 not out.
Earlier Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field against the Knight Riders.
Mumbai Indians went with an unchanged side, while the Knight Riders made two changes, bringing in Chris Lynn and Jaydev Unadkat in place of Morne Morkel and Piyush Chawla.