<img title="Mumbai Indians Kieron Pollard in action against Kings XI Punjab at Wankhede Stadium" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/may/pollard-wankhede.jpg" alt="Mumbai Indians Kieron Pollard in action against Kings XI Punjab at Wankhede Stadium" /> Mumbai Indians batsman Pollard plays a shot during the IPl T20 match played against Kings XI Punjab at Wankhede in Mumbai on Thursday. Pic/AFP
Mohit Sharma bowled one of best&nbsp;final overs under pressure with Kings XI Punjab living to fight another day edging out Mumbai Indians by 7 runs in a high-scoring IPL thriller keeping their play-off chances alive.
Put into bat, Kings XI Punjab piled up a mammoth 230 for&nbsp;3 in 20 overs riding on Wriddhiman Saha's belliegerent&nbsp;unbeaten 93 off 55 balls.
In reply, Mumbai Indians nearly pulled off the highest ever chase in IPL before being restricted to 223 in 20 overs.
Needing 16 off the final over, Kieron Pollard (50 off 24 balls) saw one run being deducted off the first delivery as he&nbsp;didn't touch the crease at non-striker's end. The next&nbsp;delivery was pulled over sqaure leg for a six.
Needing 10 off 4 balls, Mohit (2/57 in 4 overs) bowled&nbsp;three dots in a row, ladning perfect blockhole deliveries to&nbsp;seal it in favour of the Punjab franchise.&nbsp;
The win took Kings XI Punjab's points tally to 14 from 13 games and they still are in the hunt with a match against&nbsp;Rising Pune Supergiant left. Mumbai Indians have already&nbsp;qualified with 18 points and have a game left against Kolkata&nbsp;Knight Riders.
The KXIP win also puts pressure on Sunrisers Hyderabad (15 points from 13 games) to win their last match to ensure&nbsp;smooth passage into last four.&nbsp;
Even on a placid Wankhede track, a target of 231 was a&nbsp;huge one. Parthiv Patel (38) and Lendl Simmons (59 off 32&nbsp;balls) smoted the KXIP bowling en route their 99-run stand in only 8.4 overs.
Mohit Sharma, despite being smashed for 33 in his first two overs, bowled a delivery that climbed on a surging&nbsp;Parthiv, who offered simple skier to Manan Vohra.&nbsp;
Simmons, who scored his half-century off only 27 balls, hit five boundaries and four sixes, before a brilliant effort&nbsp;at the long-on boundary from Martin Guptill saw the Caribbean&nbsp;international head back to the dug-out.
The bowler was skipper Glenn Maxwell and Guptill timed his jump to perfection at long-on boundary to take a one-handed catch.&nbsp;
Leg-spinner Rahul Tewatia then bowled a half-tracker to rival skipper Rohit Sharma (5), who provided the simplest of catches to Guptill at deep-mid-wicket. The New Zealander was back in action when Nitish Rana (12) slogged one down his throat at the same position off Axar Patel's bowling.
From 99 for no loss, Mumbai Indians slumped to 121 for 4&nbsp;and it was a matter of time before scoreboard pressure got to&nbsp;the home team.&nbsp;
But Pollard and Hardik Pandya (30 off 13 balls) had other ideas as they smoked 55 runs in 3.3 overs to bring MI back in&nbsp;the game.
Once Pandya was caught brilliantly by Saha behind the&nbsp;stumps off Sandeep Sharma, Karn Sharma (19 off 6 balls) also did his bit with Pollard going for the jugular. Needing 23 off&nbsp;2 overs, Sandeep Sharma gave only 7 runs off the penultimate over before Mohit's brilliant final over.
Earlier, seasoned wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha's excellent effort of an unbeaten 93 propelled Kings XI Punjab to 230/3
Desperate for a win to keep their play-off chances alive, Saha's 55-ball effort, laced with 11 boundaries and three sixes, help the Kings to the highest total of this IPL season.
Put in to bat, Kings XI were off to a flying start with the new opening duo of Martin Guptill (36 from 18 balls) and Saha putting on 68 runs before being separated by leg-spinner Karn Sharma.
Saha, who was promoted to open the innings after South African Hashim Amla left to join his national side for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy, complimented the New Zealand big hitter well as the Punjab side raced to 50 off just 24 balls.
Guptill started the innings slamming medium pacer Hardik Pandya for two fours in the very first over and then dispatching Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga for a flat six as the Kiwi right-hander looked set for a big innings.
He then fetched two boundaries off Karn's first over before attempting another slog off the leggie, which got the elevation but failed to go the distance as Hardik latched on to a superb catch to bring the smiles back to the Mumbai crowd.
Saha too joined the party, fending the ball to the boundary thrice in the second over from pacer Mitchell McClenaghan before sending Malinga to the leather hunt twice.
Joined by captain Glenn Maxwell (47 off 21), the second wicket partnership flourished to 63 in no time as the Australian meted out special treatment to Karn and veteran offie Harbhajan Singh, clobbering the spinners for five sixes in consecutive overs.
Such was the onslaught from the Punjab duo that the visitors reached 100 in the eighth over of the innings before pacer Jasprit Bumrah knocked off the Australian's off stump after facing 21 deliveries.
Comfortably placed at 131/2, the stage was set for another Aussie Shaun Marsh (25 off 16) to press the accelerator from the first ball.
Marsh got down to business immediately, clobbering Harbhajan and McClenaghan for two sixes to add 52 runs for the third wicket with Saha, who by now had reached his half century off 31 balls.
In the same over from the Kiwi, Marsh perished in his attempt to clear the boundary when he mistimed one from McClenaghan only for stumper Parthiv Patel to take a clean catch in the point region, as Punjab lost their third wicket at 183.
Mumbai managed to pull back things for a while but could not stop the visitors cross the 200-run mark as the left-right combo of all-rounder Axar Patel (19 not out of 13) and Saha added an unbeaten 47 for the fourth wicket to guide the team to their third highest IPL total.

IPL 2017: How Kings XI Punjab ruled over Mumbai Indians at Wankhede

Mohit Sharma bowled one of best&nbsp;final overs under pressure with Kings XI Punjab living to fight another day edging out Mumbai Indians by 7 runs in a high-scoring IPL thriller keeping their play-off chances alive

IPL 2017: No home rule for Mumbai vs Punjab despite Kieron Pollard's heroics

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Home / Sports / Cricket / Article / IPL 2017: No home rule for Mumbai vs Punjab despite Kieron Pollard's heroics

IPL 2017: No home rule for Mumbai vs Punjab despite Kieron Pollard's heroics

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