Twitter Reactions: Clinical MI thump KXIP after Rohit Sharma and Pollard-Pandya partnership help them post 191

KXIP's brittle middle-order was exposed yet again after their openers got out early.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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Rohit Sharma
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Rohit Sharma. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Mumbai Indians (MI) are back to the winning ways in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) defeating the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) comfortably. The batsmen set the game up for the four-time champions with Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya firing in all cylinders. Then their bowlers did the job to restrict KXIP to a much lower total to register their second win of the season.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma was pretty happy after KXIP invited MI to bat first. And his happiness showed in his batting as well. The MI skipper took his time early on with wickets falling quickly and Ishan Kishan struggling. It was important for him to stay in the middle and he did just that to eventually reap rewards later. Earlier, Quinton de Kock bagged a duck while Suryakumar Yadav got run-out without scoring much.

Ishan Kishan stitched 62 runs with his skipper for the third wicket but he struggled completely in the middle. At 87/3 after 14 overs, MI needed a move on and Rohit, along with Kieron Pollard eked out 15 runs off Ravi Bishnoi. This is when the momentum started to change as Jimmy Neesham faced Rohit’s wrath with the bat who slammed two sixes and as many fours.

Rohit raced to 70 after getting to his half-century earlier. He was set to score big on the day but Mohammed Shami got the better of him. However, little did KXIP know what was to follow in the last 23 balls of the innings. Pollard and Hardik Pandya got stuck into the opposition to slam 67 runs together. Jimmy Neesham and Krishnappa Gowtham surprisingly bowled three of the last five overs and it KXIP endeed up conceding 104 runs in last six overs.

MI finished on 191 runs for the lost of four wickets after 20 overs with Pollard remaining unbeaten on 47 (20 balls) while Hardik plundered 30* off 11 balls.

KXIP batsmen succumb under pressure

KXIP needed their openers, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal to get going and the duo made their intentions clear in the first three overs itself. They added 33 runs in just three overs but then Jasprit Bumrah and Krunal Pandya arrested the run-scoring and the former successfully castled Agarwal. The pressure got to Karun Nair as well and he bagged a duck.

Rahul Chahar then took the most important wicket of the innings dismissing KL Rahul and at 60/3, KXIP’s hopes were almost diminished. Nicholas Pooran then played some delightful strokes to score 44 off 27 balls. His knock had started to give some momentum to the innings but James Pattinson’s introduction into the bowling attack led to the left-hander edging one to the wicket-keeper.

Glenn Maxwell‘s poor run in the tournament continued and if anything, he ended up putting the target out of reach with his 18-ball 11. With wickets falling consistently, KXIP fell far behind in the competition and were not even in the chase by the time the 17th over began.

Eventually, they could only reach 143 runs for the loss of eight wickets to lose the game by a huge margin on 48 runs. In the end, the superb partnership between Hardik and Pollard made the difference for MI apart from Rohit Sharma’s 70-run knock.

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