ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – Kieron Pollard struck a late order Man-of-the-Match cameo as reigning champions Mumbai Indians rebounded from their heart-breaking super-over loss four days ago with a comfortable 48-run win over Kings XI Punjab here yesterday.
Showing no sign of any hangover from the defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai flaunted their batting muscle to post an impressive 191 for four off their 20 overs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, with captain Rohit Sharma top-scoring with 70 off 45 balls, counting eight fours and three sixes.
Even then, when left-hander Ishan Kishan perished for 28 off 32 balls at the start of the 14th over, Mumbai were crawling at 83 for two but Pollard’s arrival then changed the complexion of the innings.
The heavyset right-hander belted an unbeaten 47 from just 20 balls with three fours and four sixes, adding 41 for the fourth wicket with Rohit and a further 67 in an unbroken fifth wicket stand with Hardik Pandya who blasted an 11-ball unbeaten 30 with three fours and two sixes. With Mumbai perched on 147 for four after 18 overs, Pollard helped them gather 19 from the penultimate over from seamer Mohammed Shami, striking boundaries from the last three balls of the over.
And Pollard then ripped into off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham in the last over, clearing the ropes with the last three deliveries of the over which leaked 25 runs.
“It feels good. Obviously we were on the losing end in the last game or so you want to come out and get over the line and we needed some strong hitting in the back end,” said the West Indies white ball captain. “After 15 overs, we were [102] so we needed to step it up. We know we had a couple overs to play with, the spinner still had another over to bowl and once he had come on anywhere between 17 and 20, we definitely were going to go maximum.”
Amid the carnage, West Indies left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell proved outstanding, conceding only 20 runs from his four overs, while accounting for the wicket of South African opener Quinton de Kock off the fifth ball of the match without scoring.
In reply, West Indies left-hander Nicholas Pooran stroked an attractive top score of 44 from 27 balls but it proved in vain as Kings XI declined to 143 for eight off their 20 overs.
Pooran hit two fours and three sixes at number four, posting 41 for the fourth with Australian Glenn Maxwell (11) before falling to a catch at the wicket off Aussie speedster James Pattinson (2-28).
