IPL 2021: Kieron Pollard’s heroics helps Mumbai Indians to their biggest chase vs CSK

Mumbai Indians (MI) won match 27 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Saturday after chasing a mammoth total of 219 by four wickets. Mumbai Indians allrounder Kieron Pollard was adjudged as the player of the match for his all-round performance, which comprised the fastest fifty of the IPL season and two wickets. The target was chased down in the very last ball of the match that gave MI their fourth win of the season taking them to fourth in the table.

In the CSK innings, there were two 100-run partnerships, which is the only time this has happened in the history of IPL. Faf du Plessis and Moeen Ali (108 from 67 deliveries), and Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja (102 from 48 deliveries), were involved in the two partnerships. The top scorer of the innings was Ambati Rayudu with 72 runs off 27 balls.

Jasprit Bumrah on the other end had his most expensive bowling spell in IPL with bowling figures of 1/56 runs in four overs. Trent Boult and Dhawal Kulkarni also had unfruitful bowling figures with one for 42 runs and none for 48 runs respectively.

MI came out all blazing to chase down the target as the openers Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma scored 38 and 35 respectively. After what looked an unlikely victory for MI at a point after losing the first three wickets, came Pollard at number five who scored the fastest fifty of the season and brought MI’s chase back on track.

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He ended unbeaten with 87 off 34 balls, which includes the 16 runs he scored in the last over of Lungi Ngidi when as many runs where required for a win. And that completed MI’s biggest ever chase in IPL.