Twitter Reactions: Brutal Pollard and cool Krunal help Mumbai Indians go past RCB

Kieron Pollard weathered the storm, which his West Indian teammate Badree was responsible for, with a match winning 70 run knock.

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Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya
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Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya. (Photo Source: BCCI)

M. Chinnaswamy has been a happy hunting ground for Mumbai Indians as they yet again defeated RCB for the 7th time in their own den. Chasing a modest 142, Mumbai Indians got home in the 19th over to win the game by 4 wickets.

Mumbai Indians’ relatively simple chase was jolted by a certain Samuel Badree. The West Indian took the first hattrick of the season bowling with the new ball. His first scalp was Parthiv who hit a half-volley straight to Chris Gayle at short cover followed by McClenaghan been holed out to long on. Rohit Sharma continued his struggles this season, which mostly has come against leg-spinners, as he again, fell to a googly making him Badree’s hat-trick victim. Badree again struck, off the last ball of his spell, as Nitish Rana cut an incoming ball only to find the fielder at point. At 33/5 Mumbai looked down and out.

In walked Krunal Pandya to join hands with Kieron Pollard. Both batted with a lot of poise and purpose to pull Mumbai out of the deep mire. Pollard got his innings underway when he hit Chahal’s first ball for a six. His partnership with Krunal of 93 was worth its weight in gold. RCB’s wheels slowly started coming off when Pollard delivered the knock-out punch as he hit Pawan Negi for two consecutive sixes in the 16th over which also raised his half-century. The 29-year old eventually fell to Chahal but not before he had carved a match-winning 70 off 47 balls.

The formalities were carried out by Pandya brothers as the senior one, Krunal, finished with 37* against his name.

Earlier, Mumbai Indians won the toss and put RCB in. Virat Kohli walked out to open the innings with Jamaican Chris Gayle. Seeing Gayle back in the XI, Rohit again gave the new ball to senior pro-Harbhajan Singh. The off-spinner tied the big man up with changes in flight and smart variations. After two quiet overs, Kohli broke the shackles by hitting Southee for a six on the first ball of the 3rd over. He looked in imperious form as he smashed two consecutive boundaries with the help of his wrists. The RCB innings was up and running.

Both openers added 63 runs in 56 balls for the first wicket before Gayle fell to Hardik Pandya, 3 runs short of his 10,000th run. As AB De Villiers walked out, millions of fans were hoping for a feast. Rohit immediately brought Krunal Pandya, who has dismissed De Villiers in the last two games between the two teams, into the attack. Pandya immediately made De Villiers fight for his runs and eventually got his wicket, courtesy a brilliant catch by the skipper at covers.

Kohli on the other end was batting exceptional well and raised his 47th T20 fifty. His dismissal – a slash off McClenaghan which went straight to Butler at deep point – made the run-making difficult for the rest of the batsman. The last boundary of the innings came off Kohli’s bat as RCB did not score a single boundary in the next 32 balls. The departure of Kohli, De Villiers, Jadhav – to an unfortunate run-out, and Mandeep Singh within a space of 16 balls took the steam out of RCB’s innings and they ended with a below par 142/5, of which just 38 came off the last 6 overs.

Following are the best Twitter reactions during the tense encounter between RCB and MI:

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