IPL: Pollard Powers Mumbai Indians To Win Against Rajasthan Royals

Mumbai Indians (MI) won their second match in a row when they beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 27 runs at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Helped by Pollard’s all-round performance, Rayudu’s batting and Malinga’s and Munaf Patel’s heroics with the ball, MI with this went top of the table.

Set a target of 198, RR’s final score doesn’t adequately reflect that till the 14^th over of their run chase, RR were still very much on course. At 134 for 3 after 14 overs and Owais Shah playing a brilliant innings, it was the 15^th of the RR innings bowled by Malinga in which he took two wickets including that of Owais Shah for 76 that changed the course of the match and permanently sealed the fate of RR. Pollard and Munaf then got into the act to clean up the rest of the batting and finish with 4 wickets each.

For MI it was Kieron Pollard’s brutal knock of 64 off 33 balls which included 4 sixes that propelled their score to 197, the highest score in this season of IPL, so far. Coming in at the fall of the third wicket, Pollard in partnership with Rayudu added 96 runs in only 8.4 overs. Pollard’s blitz kreig overshowed a fine innings of 47 by Ambati Rayudu. Harbhajan Singh’s late hitting got MI to the total that RR found to be beyond them.