UNSTOPPABLE MI
Extending their winning streak to four matches, Mumbai Indians defeated Gujarat Lions by six wickets in an Indian Premier League match on Sunday.
Nitish Rana (53), Rohit Sharma (40 not out) and Kieron Pollard (39) were the major contributors to Mumbai’s cause. Chasing a challenging total of 177, Mumbai started off on a bad note as the home side lost opener Parthiv Patel (0) on the second ball of the first over.
Parthiv, who got a leading edge, was caught by Jason Roy at backward point off Praveen Kumar while trying to flick the ball to the leg side. Opener Jos Buttler (26) and Nitish Rana (53) then played some sensible cricket as they shared an 85-run partnership for the second wicket before the latter was sent packing in the 10th over with the scoreboard reading 85/2.
In the 12th over, Buttler was also dismissed by medium pacer Munaf Patel.
Captain Rohit and Pollard then thrashed Gujarat’s bowlers all around the park and added 68 runs to give a crucial advantage to their side. With 17 runs required in the last two overs, Pollard was dismissed by pacer Andrew Tye. The West Indian power-hitter, who hit two boundaries and three sixes, was caught by Ravindra Jadeja between backward point and short third man.
New batsman Hardik Pandya (6) and Rohit then completed the proceeding to give the hosts a fourth consecutive victory in the cashrich league.
For Gujarat, Tye took two wickets while Praveen and Munaf chipped in with one wicket each.
Earlier, put into bat, Brendon McCullum and Dinesh Karthik’s crafty knocks helped Gujarat Lions post 176/4. McCullum played 44 balls and slammed six boundaries and three sixes to get his 64 runs while Karthik slammed 48 runs off 26 balls that helped Gujarat post a decent score.
It was a poor start by Gujarat as the visitors lost their first wicket on the second ball of the innings.
Dwayne Smith (0) was caught by Nitish Rana at backward point off pacer Mitchell McClenaghan with just one run on the board.
Suresh Raina (28) and McCullum then stabilised the innings as the two batsmen shared 80 runs for the second wicket.
But it was Karthik whose strokeplay in the final overs helped Gujarat finish at 176/4 in their allotted 20 overs.
19
T20 games in Mumbai won by the chasing team after the start of the 2016 World T20
51
Runs conceded by Malinga. He has never conceded more in an IPL spell
1,426
Days gap between Munaf Patel’s previous IPL game and Sunday’s match against MI