MUMBAI, India, CMC – Kieron Pollard’s Mumbai Indians finally broke their winless run in the Indian Premier League when they beat Shimron Hetmyer’s Rajasthan Royals by five wickets with four balls to spare here yesterday.
Chasing a modest 159 at the DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai overhauled their target thanks to Suryakumar Yadav who top-scored with 51 and Tilak Varma who got 35. They got little help from Pollard, however, the former West Indies white-ball captain extending his slump with 10 from 14 balls.
The victory was Mumbai’s first of the season, coming in their ninth game and with five games left for them in the opening round, can only hope to salvage pride.
Opting to bowl earlier, they restricted Royals to 158 for six with enterprising English opener Jos Butter top-scoring with 67 from 52 balls, to be the only specialist batsman to pass 20.
He lashed five fours and four sixes, putting on 37 for the third wicket with Daryl Mitchell (37) and a further 35 for the fourth wicket with the left-handed Hetmyer who was unbeaten on six from 14 balls at the end.
Along the way, Buttler passed 500 runs for the season which has seen him plunder three hundreds, and now has 566 runs.
Mumbai then survived a shaky start when they lost captain Rohit Sharma cheaply for two in the third over, motoring on thanks to opener Ishan Kishan’s 18-ball 26 and then Suryakumar, who belted five fours and two sixes.
The turning point was an 81-run, third wicket stand between Suryakumar and Varma, the partnership reviving the run chase and putting them on course for the win.
Pollard perished at the start of the final over with four runs required for victory, brilliantly taken at fine leg by Mitchell off fast bowler Kuldeep Sen.
At the Brabourne Stadium across town, Alzarri Joseph’s Gujarat Titans maintained their status at the top of the standings with a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The West Indies quick finished with one for 42 from four overs as RCB gathered 170 for six, a target Titans reeled in with three balls to spare with Rahul Tewatia (43 not out) and David Miller (39 not out) digging their side out of a hole in an unbroken 70-run, fifth wicket partnership.