IPL 2021: Mumbai Indians lose steam after opening partnership, stutter to 150/5

Hard-hitting batsman, Kieron Pollard's late strikes have helped Mumbai Indians reach 150-run mark batting in the first innings after the slow Chepauk track became the cause of defending champions' undoing in the middle overs again, this time against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Opting to bat first, skipper Rohit Sharma gave a good start to his side with his opening partner Quinton de Kock. They brought up a 50-run partnership inside the powerplay, which was required given the nature of the surface in Chennai.

But after the powerplay, the innings just fell off the cliff as the batsmen failed to time the ball and the ball started gripping and holding in the surface, making life difficult for the batsmen. It was the all-rounder Vijay Shankar, who came to the party for the SRH. 

Shankar, first accounted for MI captain Rohit getting him to hit towards the longer boundary on the leg-side as he didn't time the ball well and hit straight into the hands of the fielder. He used his slower balls and cutters to a good effect on the Chepauk surface that aided the change of pace.

If that wasn't enough, Shankar also removed the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav in his very next over as the slower ball gripped and it held in the surface. Surya could hit only as far as the bowler and Shankar didn't make any mistake in grabbing the ball.

After which, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, de Kock all struggled and MI innings was going nowhere and it required something special to get to a respectable total and Pollard just provided. He was dropped by Shankar himself in the 19th over of the innings and he used that life to good effect.

Pollard hit a couple of lusty blows in the final over and three in total to help Mumbai reach the 150-run total.