IPL 2017: MI taken over the line by Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana against KKR in a thriller

Hardik Pandya played a valuable cameo to take the Mumbai Indians over the line. (Source: IPL)

Mumbai Indians seem to be following their tradition of getting the season off to a slow start when Kieron Pollard was dismissed by Chris Woakes. Mumbai still needed more than 55 runs to win off a painfully less amount of balls at that point and that wicket seemed to have decided the game. Before that, skipper Rohit Sharma had to walk back due to a stinker from the umpire who gave him leg before despite there being a thick inside edge.

But such is the IPL, and T20 cricket in general, that even one good over can turn the tide. Mumbai had two. The first was Trent Boult’s over bowled right after the one that resulted in Pollard’s dismissal. Nitish Rana was the hero for that moment and he carried over the momentum into the next over. He got a half century in the process but went down to Ankit Rajpoot. But the latter’s celebrations were limited to that ball as Hardik Pandya then took over from where his partner left and smashed 19 runs off Rajpoot’s 19th over. A boundary from a misfield and one more then decided the match and Hardik Pandya punched the air. Mumbai Indians had chased down and surpassed the target of 179. They had gotten off to a good start with Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler putting a 65-run opening stand before losing quick wickets.

For KKR, Manish Pandey turned out to be the tormentor-in-chief. Gautam Gambhir and Chris Lynn, who had taken Gujarat Lions for a ride in their opening match, were dismissed without making a similar impact. Pandya then took the mantle of being the anchor but wickets kept falling at the other end. He then smashed a whopping 22 runs off the last over bowled by Mitchell McClenaghan. Pandey score of 81 off 47 balls is the third highest so far this season.