Agencies
Mumbai, April 20: Kieron Pollard (40 n o, 19b, 4×4, 3×3) played a blinder after skipper Rohit Sharma’s (62, 44b, 4×4, 3×6) brilliant knock to help Mumbai Indians (MI) script up a facile six-wicket victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in an IPL-IX match at the Wankhede Stadium here Wednesday.
Chasing a victory target of 171, MI at one point looked in trouble at 140 for four with both Rohit and Jos Buttler back in the pavilion. But Pollard, back into the side after missing the last game due to food poisoning, took the game by the scruff of its neck and helped MI to a crucial win with 12 balls to spare.
Kane Richardson went for two sixes in the 17th over, before Pollard finished the game hitting Shane Watson for a huge six over square-leg and then followed it up with two boundaries – the last a lucky edge to third man.
Homeboy Iqbal Abdullah (3/40) had threatened to spoil the Mumbai party dismissing Ambati Rayudu (31, 23b, 5×4), Rohit and Buttler. But Pollard had other ideas and his blitzkrieg shut out whatever aspirations RCB may have had.
Earlier some brilliant hitting in the death overs by Travis Head (37, 24b, 2×4, 2×6) and Sarfaraz Khan (28, 18b, 2×4, 2×6) took RCB to a competitive score of 170 for seven.
Put into bat by the opposition, RCB had slipped to 99 for four before Head and Sarfaraz came to the party to bail them out with some planned hitting. Prior to their arrival, Virat Kohli (33, 30b, 3×4), AB de Villiers (29, 21b, 3×4 1×6) had promised much, but were done in by the spin of Kunal Pandya (2/27). And when Shane Watson fell early, there were signs of danger for RCB.
But Head and Sarfaraz changed all that with a 63-run partnership for the fifth wicket. A flat-batted six over mid-wicket off the elder Pandya – Hardik, was the standout shot in Head’s innings.
Kolhi and KL Rahul (23, 14b, 2×4, 2×6) started quietly, but then Rahul exploded in the third over of the innings hitting pacer Tim Southee for two boundaries. He followed up with two successive sixes of Mitchell McClenaghan, but the Kiwi had his revenge with the last ball of the over and had Rahul caught at fly slip by Harbhajan Singh as the batsman tried to dab the ball down to third man.
The Kohli-ABD partnership of 59 runs then looked like taking the game away from MI. However, in the 11th over MI got the break they were looking for. Trying to hit Kunal over extra-cover, Kohli stepped out but could not get to the pitch of the ball and could only hit it down long-off’s throat where Southee accepted the catch with glee. Four balls later there was more joy in the MI camp as Kunal lured De Villiers down the track and beat him with the spin with Parthiv Patel behind the stumps completing the stumping.
