IPL 2017, Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: Mumbai Indians’ escape artists

Kieron Pollard has always divided opinions, and not just in the Caribbean. Is he a glorified slogger who creates an illusion of being a T20 behemoth despite his inconsistencies because of his big-hitting? Or is he actually one of the foremost T20 finishers the format has ever seen? The verdict is still out, and it is a debate that perhaps will never quite be settled for good with an equal number of voices supporting both sides of the argument. It’s no surprise though that the towering Trinidadian didn’t take too lightly to being called “brainless to bat in the top-order” by Sanjay Manjrekar on-air. It was a similar statement referring to “brains” from Mark Nicholas about the West Indian team in general that became a rally-cry for Darren Sammy & Co who went on to win their second World T20 title this time last year.

There’s no shortage of brawn in Pollard. You don’t have to see him from up-close to realize that. He looks gigantic enough even in the 2D images that the TV throws up. Few batsmen in the IPL have hit more towering sixes than he has. And he has historically been one of the chief protagonists of the West Indian style of T20 batting which goes something like “why bother about singles when you can smash the ball out of the ground every other over”. But the situation of the match on Friday at the Chinnaswamy Stadium wasn’t cut out for a pure, unadulterated show of brawn. It called for a cool head and a lot of cricketing smartness. Here was Pollard’s chance to prove a point, something he’s unfortunately used to doing pretty much throughout his career. Samuel Badree had rocked Mumbai with a sensational new-ball hat-trick (which we’ll come to later) leaving them on the brink at 7/4 and the partisan Chinnaswamy crowd had already broken out into a boisterous lime.

The pitch was sluggish. The target, 143, seemed a fair distance away. The stage was set for Pollard to show just why he gets paid the big bucks around the world. And he took Mumbai home with one of the more level-headed and intelligent knocks in a successful run-chase ever witnessed in the IPL. He started off in unnatural fashion, pushing and prodding against Badree and Yuzvendra Chahal—who he did loft for an inevitable six early on. By the time, Mumbai closed in on their last six overs needing 63, Pollard had ground out a dogged 41 off 36 balls, having smashed the last ball of the 14th over with the shot of the day, an inside-out six off Pawan Negi on a pitch which had seen even AB de Villiers struggle to manipulate the ball. Now it was time for Pollard to show off his impressive power, and he did so by repeatedly sending the ball flying into the Bangalore night sky and by the time he exited for a 47-ball 70—an innings that had 22 singles by the way—Pollard had not just set up a dramatic win for Mumbai, but also proved a point, once more.

Badree ’tricks Mumbai

Samuel Badree is an enigma. But he’s also a pioneer. Imagine this. He’s opened the bowling in every international match he’s played for West Indies. And this despite being a rather innocuous leg-spinner who doesn’t turn the ball, ambles in like he’s just out for a stroll in his sleepy hometown of Barrackpore and delivers the ball with a bowling action—with the collapsed front-arm and all—that you wouldn’t expect to see at the highest level. Yet, he’s not just been the most economical spinner in T20 history and consistently been ranked as the No.1 bowler in the format, but also was roped in by Cricket Australia to mentor their spinners like Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan had been earlier. Strangely though, he’d only appeared in five matches across four seasons and three franchises in the IPL. Expect those figures to change though after Wednesday, a day where he produced the first hat-trick of IPL X with a mesmerising display of googly bowling. He first started off with having Parthiv Patel caught at cover. Pinch-hitter Mitchell McClenaghan was next hitting an attempted googly turned full-toss to long-on before becoming the third leg-spinner in three innings to nail Rohit Sharma with back-of-the-hand trickery. He then returned two overs later to add a fourth victim to his googly-attack to finish with magical figures of 4/9 in four overs, which if not for his fellow Trinidadian seemed to have set up the game for Bangalore.

Rekindling the flame

Has Kohli missed the IPL more or has IPL X missed him more? Perhaps it’s a draw. For despite a number of eye-catching performances and close finishes, the 10th edition of the IPL simply hasn’t been the same without the ubiquitous Indian captain, or so it’s seemed. And duly, Kohli picked up his bat, overcame the difficult pitch conditions, hit a couple of sweet sixes and a handful of his trademark boundaries before raising his bat for yet another IPL half-century. It was an important knock in the context of the innings, but also one that was mandatory it would seem to get IPL X kicking into a higher gear.