Kieron Pollard stages dramatic fightback to lead Mumbai Indians to thrilling 4-wicket win over RCB

Led by a fighting 70-run knock by Kieron Pollard, Mumbai Indians chased down Royal Challengers Bangalore’s modest target of 143 with four wickets in hand after being reduced to 7/4 at one stage thanks to a hat-trick by Samuel Badree.

Mumbai Indians managed to restrict RCB to 142/5 despite a 62-run knock by Virat Kohli, who returned to action after recovering from an injury that saw sit out from the team’s first three games. The total looked to be enough at one stage as Badree ran through the Mumbai top-order. Pollard though staged a brilliant fightback and took Mumbai over the line.

On return, Virat Kohli solid as ever

Injuries dominated talk as Royal Challengers Bangalore prepared for the Indian Premier League. It was becoming increasingly clear that the casualty list could impact their campaign adversely. But the Bangalore outfit still had such abundance of stars, it was hard to imagine that they could be kept silent for long.

So, when Virat Kohli was declared fit for the game against Mumbai Indians, the talk of injuries subsided and suddenly the team appeared formidable. Gayle, who was dropped in the previous game, was also back.

The duo opened the innings as Mumbai Indians won the toss and asked RCB to bat first. Kohli took the lead, making it hard to believe that he spent the last fortnight recovering from a serious shoulder injury. Gayle played the perfect supporting role and the two added a 63-run partnership for the opening wicket.

With confident strokes, Kohli fended off any early zip that would have helped the Mumbai bowlers early on. Kohli showed little rust as he went about his business. The slow and low wicket did not seem to be a hurdle for the 28-year-old. He showed his class early on in the knock as he smashed a six followed by two boundaries off a Tim Southee over.

After Gayle’s dismissal on 22, he continued unfazed and went onto share another 47 runs with AB de Villiers. With five boundaries and two sixes, Kohli led from the front. No, it wasn’t his most fluent of knocks. He attempted multiple slog sweeps and missed a few as well. But, he managed to give his side a strong start, and took them past the 100-run mark.

Captain Rohit Sharma’s moment in the sun

With Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the opposition, the task of keeping the batsmen quiet was never going to be a straightforward matter. But, after winning the toss Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma chose to bat first. The slow and dry wicket had its say and Rohit pounced on the opportunity.

Other than Kohli, no other batsman was really allowed to flex their muscles. Rohit was on the ball with his field placings. Each batsman received specific field placements.

To combat Kohli, there were reinforcements at deep extra cover, because he targets that area a lot. For de Villiers, who is known to cut a lot, there was an extra man in the cover region. With a wicket that was slow and kept low, the batsmen were forced to play against their instinct as the areas they were accustomed to targeting were covered.

So, it wasn’t a surprise that Kohli was caught by Mitchell McCleneghan at deep extra cover. Five runs later, de Villiers fell for 13 after being caught by Rohit himself as he looked to clear the Mumbai Indians skipper who was standing at cover.

The two wickets were crucial. From 110/1 after 15 overs, RCB were restricted to 142/5 from their 20 overs.

The low and slow wicket at Chinnaswamy

Kohli and de Villiers’ departure allowed Mumbai to get on top of things. Despite the wickets in hand RCB choked under pressure. The slow and low wicket played a role as well. They could only mange to score 31 runs in the last five overs. In fact, not a single boundary was scored during the period.

It was a similar situation when Mumbai came into bat. The lack of bounce on the wicket created a major problem and signaled a massive top-order collapse. A few careless shots by the Mumbai batsmen did not help matters either. Speaking from the sidelines, RCB’s stand-in skipper in the previous game, admitted the wicket was quite different to the ones usually employed at the Chinnaswamy. It is the venue where the likes of Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum smashed impressive centuries. It is here that Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers had shared a mammoth 229-run partnership against Gujarat Lions last season.

On Friday, the picture was quite different, but it did make for a tense low-scoring clash, a rarity in the slam-bam brand of cricket were are more suited for in the IPL.

Samuel Badree’s hat-trick on RCB debut

Samuel Badree has been an enigma of sorts. The 36-year-old has been a name that has always done the rounds in Twenty20 cricket. At the top of his game, he consistently topped the world rankings as a T20 bowlers. At an average of just 16.46 and economy of 5.65, he was one of the most effective bowlers in the shortest format. But, despite his class in the international arena, his exploits in the Indian Premier League have never jumped the page.

On Friday, he went about changing this notion. With the wicket playing to his strengths, Badree had his tail up even before the first ball was bowled. He was handed the new ball. The Trinidadian delivered on the trust shown in him with a brilliant hat-trick made all the more sweet by the fact that it came at a time when his team needed it the most.

Bowling the second over of his spell, Badree helped clean up the top-order after Stuart Binny had initiated the collapse by dismissing big-hitting Jos Butler. Badree bowled a googly to Parthiv Patel with his second delivery. Parthiv tried to lift it over the covers but was forced into an early shot and was caight by Gayle at short extra cover.

Badree was lucky on the next delivery, as he tossed a full-toss to Mitchell McCleneghan who was sent up the order. The bowler smashed the full delivery, but did not quite hit it with the power needed to clear the boundary and was caught at long on.

On a hat-trick, Badree bowled the next ball to MI skipper Rohit Sharma, who went into the game with scores of 4, 2 and 3. He was desperate for a big score as he looks to make a comeback into the India side, who he last played for in October when he suffered a knee injury. But, it was Badree’s day. Rohit offered a forward defence, but the ball Badree bowled full, kept low and turned enought to crash into the stumps through the gap between bat and pad.

Mumbai had slumped to 7/4 in a matter of 16 balls. But, Badree was not done. He returned for his second spell to pick up his fourth wicket in the eighth over. He dismissed the Mumbai’s in-form batsman Nitish Rana to leave Mumbai on 33/5 after 8 overs and finish with figures of 4/9.

Kieron Pollard leads Mumbai’s fightback

Kieron Pollard has had a quiet season so far with the Mumbai Indians. It was a day of the Trinidadians to come to the fore. If Samuel Badree delivered for RCB, it was his compatriot Keiron Pollard who resurrected the Mumbai innings after Badree had run through the top-order to reduce the visitors to 7/4 at one stage.

With scores of 11, 7 and 27 Pollard had not really set the stage on fire. With the ball too, he has bowled just once, in the opening game, but went wicket-less. On Friday, he played out an uncharacteristic knock. He smashed a 70-run knock to lead Mumbai to an incredible victory.

With Mumbai needing someone to dig them out of the hole. He shared valuable partnerships with Nitish Rana for 26 runs and then 93 runs with Krunal Pandya (37*). After playing against his instinct for much of the initial stages, Pollard launched into an attack only when the required run-rate shot up. He smashed three boundaries and five sixes. It was the need of the hour and proved to be enough consideting the conditions on offer.

Brief scores

• Royal Challengers Bangalore 142/5 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 62; Mitchell McCleneghan 2/20) lost to Mumbai Indians 145/6 in 18.5 overs (Kieron Pollard 70, Samuel Badree 4/9) by four wickets.