Rohit, Pollard bid Wankhede farewell in style
Mumbai, by Gokul Gopal • Last updated on Friday, 29 April, 2016, 12:21 AM
Rohit Sharma starred once again against Kolkata Knight Riders © BCCI
Rohit Sharma defied Kolkata Knight Riders for the second time in the season, and this time, he had the belligerent Kieron Pollard for company as Mumbai Indians, in their final Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 game at the Wankhede stadium on Thursday (April 28), signed off with a six-wicket victory.
Asked to bat first, the Knight Riders managed to get off to a quick-fire start, with Gautam Gambhir (59) and Robin Uthappa (36) doing a good job again. But Mumbai managed to pull things back, restricting Kolkata to 174 for five, before getting over the line comfortably thanks to Rohit's well paced 68* off 49 deliveries and Pollard's unbeaten 17-ball 51, which was laced with six sixes.
When Rohit got off the mark with a six off Jaydev Unadkat, the Knight Riders would have had a sense of Deja Vu. Although Parthiv Patel's stay in the middle was a short one, Mumbai managed to maintain a healthy run-rate thanks to Ambati Rayudu and Rohit, who found the fence on multiple occasions.
Kolkata tried to mix things up by using as many as four bowlers during the powerplay, but that couldn't stop Mumbai's rampage as Rohit and Rayudu came up with a 360 degree batting exhibition of their own. Their half-century stand came off only 27 balls while the powerplay yielded 64 runs.
A leaping effort from Suryakumar Yadav at deep mid-wicket ended the fiery stand as Rayudu fell to Shakib. Krunal Pandya the next man in, had a short outing, bowled by Sunil Narine. The quick wickets meant that Rohit and Jos Buttler had to consolidate and Mumbai had to shift down a gear or two.
But it wasn't a steep decline in the scoring as Rohit scored some crucial boundaries, using Andre Russell's pace to his advantage, to help Mumbai go past 100 in the 12th over while he also brought up his fourth fifty of the edition. Buttler's outing though was cut short as Chris Lynn's stunning effort - reminiscent of his efforts in the 2014 edition in 2014 - gave Narine his second wicket.
Mumbai's momentum slip was only temporary as Rohit and Pollard went after Russell and Shakib respectively, to bring down the required rate. And then happened the R Sathish over, in which the Knight Riders' all-rounder gave away 23 runs, which included three brutal sixes by Pollard. The over shifted the advantage completely in favour of Mumbai as they needed to score just 26 off the last 24 deliveries.
The 17th over, which was bowled by Narine, yielded only six runs, but Pollard scored three sixes off Unadkat to help Mumbai win with two overs to spare.
Earlier, Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir yet again got Kolkata Knight Riders off to a brisk start. The Wankhede wicket offered some bounce but with the ball also coming on nicely onto the bat, the Kolkata openers capitalised well, as they dealt in regular boundaries.
Mumbai did have an opportunity to end the opening partnership early, but Mitchell McClenaghan put down Gambhir off his own bowling, failing to hold on to a skier, which proved to be a costly miss. Gambhir, apart from taking on the bowlers from time to time, rotated the strike well while Uthappa did most of the big hitting as Kolkata ended the powerplay with a run-rate close to ten-an-over.
There was some turn on offer and Harbhajan Singh had the batsmen in trouble on a few occasions. He was unlucky not to pick up the wicket of Uthappa when a stumping chance was missed in the eighth over. But the smile was back on the Mumbai tweaker's face in a short while as the right-handed opener, in his attempt to go over the top, found Kieron Pollard at long-on to depart for a 20-ball 36.
Knight Riders took a batting gamble as Shakib Al Hasan walked out to bat at No. 3, in place of Suryakumar Yadav. The punt did not work in their favour as Bangladesh left-hander fell to Hardik Pandya after failing to execute a pull.
The wickets meant that the scoring-rate came down a bit, with the four overs after the powerplay yielding 28 runs. Suryakumar Yadav and Gambhir put on a steady partnership, with the latter bringing up his third fifty of this edition. However, the Kolkata skipper fell soon after, mistiming a pull off McClenaghan to Pollard at mid-off. Suryakumar too fell in a similar manner, giving Tim Southee his first wicket. The New Zealand pacers bowled in tandem with Jasprit Bumrah, before the death overs, to put a lid on the scoring rate.
Andre Russell got an opportunity to free his arms as he scored three fours off Bumrah in the 17th over. However, he couldn't manage that against Southee, and was out bowled while trying to play across the line. Yusuf Pathan then clobbered two back-to-back fours in the same over to help the Knight Riders past 150. Chris Lynn and Pathan also got a couple of lucky breaks when Southee, at deep mid-wicket, failed to hang on to the ball for two deliveries in succession, much to the disappointment of McClenaghan.
Pandya's brilliant bit of fielding prevented a hit from Lynn from going over the boundary in the final over. Thanks to that, and some tight bowling from Bumrah, Kolkata could only manage eight in the final over to end up with 174, which proved to be too little in the end.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indians 178/4 in 18 overs (Rohit Sharma 68*, Kieron Pollard 51*; Sunil Narine 2-22) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 174/5 in 20 overs (Gautam Gambhir 59, Robin Uthappa 36; Tim Southee 2-38) by 6 wickets
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