Mumbai Indians beat Kings XI Punjab at their home pitch at Wankhede by three wickets while chasing target 198.
For a change Kieron Pollard wore the captains hat for Mumbai as Rohit Sharma was rested due to a precautionary measure after a muscle spasm on his right leg. The stand-in captain Pollard played a captains knock of 31 ball 83.
While chasing the target, Mumbai Indians received multiple shocks with Mohammed Shami in particular who picked 3/21 in his four over quota. However, Pollard stood tall even as wickets continued falling around him, preferring to deal in giant sixes. His 83 runs came in three fours and ten sixes. His wicket in the last over took the match to a nail biter last ball finish, but Alzarri Joseph picked up the important runs in Ankit Rajpoot’s bowling.
With this victory, Mumbai Indians climbed to third on the IPL 2019 table, with 8 points from six matches. Kings XI Punjab, who remain on 8 points, have played one additional match and are currently fourth on the table.
During KXIP’s batting, a 116 run partnership was stitched by Chris Gayle and KL Rahul. When left-handed Gayle departed in the 13th over, the run-rate slowed down. Hardik Pandya sent back avid Miller and Karun Nair cheaply. Bumrah then later took Sam Curran, but in the 19th over KL Rahul punished Hardik Pandya by hitting three sixes and a four, yielding 25 runs. Thirteen came off the final over to boost the total..
Rahul who went all offensive in the last two completed his an IPL century.