Sarul Kanwar and Kieron Pollard came good in a Mumbai Indians run fest at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday evening. Mumbai posted 176 for five against Cape Cobras in their third league match of the Champions League Twenty20.
Pollard was at his destructive best, scoring a brilliant half-century after Kanwar had given MI a fine start. Pollard, who came in at the score of 75 for three, launched an all-out attack on the Cobra bowlers. He smashed JP Duminy for two sixes in one over and slammed three boundaries in one Vernon Philander over.
Pollard reached his fifty with a perfectly-placed boundary off Philander. The South Africans managed to see the back of the West Indian after Owais Shah took a catch (his fourth of the evening) when Pollard (58, 37 balls, 6x4, 3x6) tried to hit Dale Steyn out of the ground.
Earlier, 23-year-old Kanwar helped his side get off to a perfect start. The Punjab batsman, who was playing his first match for MI, showed aggression hitting the likes of Steyn and Charl Langeveldt out of the ground.
He, along with Aiden Blizzard, helped the team race to 66 in 6.1 overs. Kanwar was set for a bigger score than 45 but was unlucky to have been caught at long-on by Shah off off-spinner Robin Peterson.
After Kanwar’s dismissal, Cobras got rid of Blizzard (19, 24 balls, 1x4, 1x6) and Ambati Rayudu (6, 7 balls, 1x4) in quick succession. But Pollard’s arrival changed the complexion of the game. Pollard did most of the hitting and he was well supported by James Franklin (18, 18 balls, 2x6). The two added 69 runs for the fourth wicket. Andrew Symonds played a cameo, scoring an unbeaten 14 off just eight balls. He helped Mumbai score 51 in the last five overs.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 176/5 in 20 overs (K Pollard 58, S Kanwar 45; R Peterson 2/29) vs Cape Cobras
Teams
Mumbai Indians:Aiden Blizzard, Sarul Kanwar, Ambati Rayudu (wk), James Franklin, Andrew Symonds, Kieron Pollard, Rajagopal Sathish, Harbhajan Singh (c), Lasith Malinga, Abu Nechim, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Cape Cobras: Dale Steyn, Charl Langeveldt, Jean-Paul Duminy, Richard Levi, Herschelle Gibbs, Dane Vilas (wk), Owais Shah, Justin Ontong, Justin Kemp (c), Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander.
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