Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard stitched an unbeaten 45-run partnership off just 23 balls to help Mumbai Indians chase down the 136-run target.
Mumbai Indians finally broke their three-match losing streak to win their first game of the second half of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they beat the Punjab Kings in Match No 42 by six wickets at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi to keep their qualification hopes alive.
Punjab Kings bowlers poured their heart out in defending a small total of 135 runs on a good Abu Dhabi surface but in the end, it proved to be short as Mumbai romped home with one over to spare. Skipper KL Rahul suggested that they were 30-35 runs short and it was all because of one man - Kieron Pollard.
Pollard, who completed 300 T20 wickets on Tuesday broke open the game in just one over getting the 'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle and PBKS skipper KL Rahul in consecutive balls and pegging the Kings really back. Aiden Markram and Deepak Hooda stitched a 61-run stand to set up a great platform for them to launch but losing Markram in the 16th over didn't help as the South African batter was playing a gem of a knock of 42 runs off just 29 balls.
Hooda didn't get much strike after that as Bumrah, Boult and Nathan Coulter-Nile put breaks on their scoring and the Kings could only get to 135.
Mumbai Indians' openers were watchful at the start but the leggie Ravi Bishnoi made the game interesting by getting skipper Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav in consecutive deliveries to leave underconfident MI tottering in the powerplay.
Saurabh Tiwary, who returned to the side in place of Ishan Kishan, joined Quinton de Kock as both players kept rotating the strike and kept NRR in check but KL Rahul reintroduced Shami just after the time-out and he git the crucial wicket of de Kock, who was dropped by Markram earlier off Bishnoi's bowling.
Hardik Pandya came in at No 5 and took his own sweet time to create a perfect launchpad for himself to really go after the bowling. The low score allowed him to take time as Pandya was on 12* off 16 before he and Pollard went crash bag as they lost Tiwary in the previous over giving Nathan Ellis his maiden IPL wicket.
Pandya smashed a four and a six off Shami and Pollard did the same in Arshdeep Singh's over as the required rate came down from 10 to 8.5, which was now a formality for the big-hitting duo as the former finished the game off with a couple of boundaries and a six in the 19th to take his side over the line, after three losses.
While MI have kept their hopes alive, it has pushed PBKS to the brink as they not just have to win their remaining games but hope for a few results to go their way as well.
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 "Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard")
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