IPL 2016: Mumbai Indians bid sweet farewell to home, beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets

Saving the best for the last, defending champions Mumbai Indians gave their home fans at the Wankhede the much-needed cheer by defeating former winners Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets on Thursday. The hosts chased down the target of 175 in just 18 overs.

The win, Mumbai's fourth of the tournament takes them to third in the table and sees them do the double over KKR having beaten them earlier at the Eden Gardens.

It may have been Rohit Sharma, who led from the front smashing his fourth half-century of the tournament in a 49-ball 68* (8x4, 2x6). But it was Kieron Pollard, who took the match away from Kolkata by scoring the fastest ever fifty by a Mumbai Indians batsman – off 17 balls (2x4, 6x6).

MI faltered at the start with opener Parthiv Patel being dismissed for one in the second over. Post that, it was skipper Sharma, who once again came good taking his side to 85/2 in the first ten overs. Sharma went all guns blazing right from the word go, smashing a six off Jaydev Unadkat off the very second ball of the innings. He did find an able partner in Ambati Rayadu (32) with the duo adding 59 for the second wicket.

The next five overs saw 41 runs being scored. The skipper and Pollard, playing in his 100th IPL game, gave Andre Russell a torrid time smashing 11 and 10 runs in the 12th and 14th overs, respectively.

The 16th over was when Pollard came to the party and drove Wankhede Stadium crazy by smashing three sixes Rajagopal Satish. With 49 runs needed off five overs, the damage was now done with Mumbai Indians needing just 26 off the final four.

Pollard was on 31 with Mumbai needing 19 off the last three overs. He would make the last two overs inconsequential by smashing three sixes off Unadkat that led to Mumbai winning their last game played in Mumbai.

Earlier, it was KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir (59), who once again led from the front giving his side the platform with a 69-run opening partnership with Robin Uthappa (36). Cameos by Andre Russell (22) and Yusuf Pathan (19*) saw the Kolkata side add 44 runs in the last four overs.

The Mumbai Indians' fielding was not as good as their batting. They dropped at least three sitters, with Tim Southee flooring twice and his New Zealand team-mate Mitchell McClenaghan, one.

Gambhir was on 8 when McClenaghan dropped him in the innings' second over. The dropped catch seemed to have given KKR an added gear and the two openers decided to attack Southee right from the word go in the third over.

With the pacers being pasted, Harbhajan Singh was brought into the attack in the sixth over. Uthappa brought up the 50-run partnership in style with a six.

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Uthappa, who was lucky not to have been stumped off Harbhajan, finally departed when he sent the off-spinner's full toss straight into Pollard at long-on.

Local boy Suryakumar Yadav added 44 with Gambhir to repair the damage. Batting steadily, Gambhir notched up his third fifty of the tournament.

With 43 runs scored in six overs between 11 and 16, one thought MI were getting back into the match. But Andre Russell had different ideas smashing 13 off Jasprit Bumrah in the 17th over. Despite Southee dropping twice in succession off McClenaghan, MI bowlers did well to restrict KKR to under 180.

KKR skipper did admit after the match that his team fell at least 15 runs short and that the MI bowlers came back well in the death overs.

That made the difference in the end for Mumbai Indians, who posted their second win against KKR this season, having won in the first leg in Kolkata in the first week of IPL 2016.