MI were set a target of 198 which they chased down courtesy a brilliant knock from Pollard who scored 83 off just 31.
MI opted to field on winning the toss. The major shock for MI and the fans was that their skipper Rohit Sharma got injured and as precautionary measure opted not to play. Pollard took over the reins.
The Kings 11 were off to a flier after watchful 4 overs. Both Chris Gayle and KL Rahul looked in great nick the former in particular as he didn't let go any single opportunity to smash sixes. Both brought up their respective half centuries.Chris Gayle seemed to had twisted his back and just after a little break got dismissed to Behrendorff.
The onus was on KL Rahul to keep going but wickets kept falling on the other hand as Miller, Karun Nair, Sam Curran departed. It was the last 3 overs that Rahul decided to finally go for the slog. He did it with some style tonight as even one of the world's best death bowler Jasprit Bumrah wasn't spared. He brought up his well deserved century, his first of the IPL. Kings 11 ended on 197.
It wasn't a tough one to chase. But MI did make it tough. As none of the top order batsman scored enough. The debutant S Lad played a couple of good hits but couldn't hang on. de Kock and S Yadav fell too.
Pollard promoted himself up the order and he played a captain's knock indeed. Ishan Kishan got dismissed by an absolute brilliant piece of fielding from Sam Curran. Hardik Pandya supported Pollard but wasn't enough. At the other end Pollard was hitting sixes for fun. It looked as if he had enough of his fellow Caribbean Andre Russell and wanted to show everyone that he can do the same.
But the job wasn't done yet as Pollard got out when 4 runs were required off 5 balls. But the young Joseph kept his cool and got his team home.
Kieron Pollard was undoubtedly Man of the Match.
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