Some brutal late order hitting proves too much for Glenn Maxwell and the Kings XI as James Pattinson takes two wickets for Mumbai
Match Report:
ScorecardA century in six overs: Mumbai go top of the IPL
Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya helped the Mumbai Indians hammer 104 runs from the final six overs of the innings to guide them out of reach of the Kings XI Punjab and secure a 48-run win in the Indian Premier League.
Pollard (47 not out from 20 balls) and Pandya (30 not out from 11) did most of the damage as Mumbai finished with 4-191 from their 20 overs before Kings XI Punjab faded to 8-143.
Image Id: B5681C2BB2D1435BA1F92FA3F4CDC792 Image Caption: Pollard hit the last three balls of the innings for six // BCCI/IPLOpener Rohit Sharma had earlier kept Mumbai in the hunt for a good total with 70 off 45 balls.
His first scoring shot, a boundary, made him the third man to pass 5000 IPL runs after Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina before he overturned an lbw decision against him on review.
West Indian Shane Cottrell (1-20 from four) bowled well to help limit Mumbai to 3-87 after 14 overs, but his exit allowed Rohit to break loose.
After Rohit and Pollard hit a six each to take 15 runs from the 15th over, the Indian hammered Kiwi Jimmy Neesham for 4-4-6-6 as the 16th over went for 22 runs.
Rohit was out in the next over to a relay catch on the boundary when Aussie Glenn Maxwell lobbed the ball back over the line to Neesham, but Pollard and Pandya were far from finished.
The 18th over went for 18 runs and the 19th for 19 before the West Indian capped the innings with three consecutive sixes as the final over went for 25.
All up, Mumbai’s batsmen hit 17 boundaries – eight fours and nine sixes – in the final 36 balls of the innings.
Image Id: BEB45B3798A5464EA768362E62D44ED2 Image Caption: Pandya hit 30 from just 11 balls faced // BCCI/IPL"After 15 overs, we had 100 or so, so we needed to step it up," Pollard said.
"We knew we had a couple of overs from spinners (coming), and we were going to maximum against them."
Needing to score at almost 10 an over to win, Kings XI started solidly but a steady flow of wickets saw the required run rate sore.
At 3-60 in the ninth over, Maxwell joined Nicholas Pooran in the middle and while the West Indian flourished with 44 from 27 balls, the asking rate was already too high and Maxwell scored just 11 from 18 balls.
Aussie paceman James Pattinson took 2-28 from his four overs.
Mumbai now top the IPL standings with two wins from four matches, while Kings XI Punjab are sixth of eight teams.