Mumbai Indians raced to a competitive 160 for seven against Pune Warriors India, thanks to Kieron Pollard’s hard hitting in the death overs.
Mumbai Indians raced to a competitive 160 for seven against Pune Warriors India, thanks to Kieron Pollard’s hard hitting in the death overs. A series of misfields by Pune towards the end also helped Mumbai’s cause at the DY Patil Stadium here on Wednesday.
The Sachin Tendulkar’s men moved to the top of the table with 14 points even as Pune suffered their seventh consecutive loss.With two wins in nine games, the Warriors are virtually out of reckoning for a berth in the playoffs.
Just when it looked like the formidable Mumbai batting line-up would not live up to its reputation, Pollard came up with 21-ball 29 that turned the table in Mumbai’s favour. His innings was studded with two boundaries and two sixes. Pune bowled to a tight line throughout the innings but lost the plot when Alfonso Thomas gave away 27 runs in the penultimate. Mumbai raced to 152/6 from 125/6.
Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar opened the innings with a fourth different partner this season. Aiden Blizzard, coming in for injured Davy Jacobs, could not make much impact on his debut, departing after making only six runs. The Australian edged the ball and Robin Uthappa took a stunner, diving to his left. The wicketkeeper followed it up with his customary celebration of giving a bow to the crowd.
A 40-run second wicket stand between Tendulkar and Ambati Rayudu steadied the going for Mumbai. The MI skipper was lucky on two occasions and he was going strong but his innings was cut short by Jesse Ryder, who took a good catch off Yuvraj Singh’s bowling. Mumbai were reduced to 58 for two in 8.2 overs. The Pune skipper struck again the very next over, dismissing Rayudu, 69 for three.
It was good bowling on the part of the Warriors that put brakes on Mumbai’s march. They were 65 for two in the first ten overs. The pick of the bowlers for Pune was Rahul Sharma. His spell of 4-0-7-2 lessened the pace of Mumbai’s innings.
Teams
Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (C), Ambati Rayudu,
Rohit Sharma, Aiden Blizzard, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga,
Munaf Patel, Kieron Pollard, T Suman, Andrew Symonds and
Dhawan Kulkarni.
Pune Warriors: Yuvraj Singh (C), Jesse Ryder, Robin
Uthappa, Graeme Smith, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Mithun Manhas, Tim Paine, Manish Pandey, Shrikanth Wagh, Jerome Taylor and Alfonso Thomas.
Scorecard of the match
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