Bangalore: Hardik Pandya’s muscled a couple into the stands and one out of sight as Mumbai Indians (MI) recovered from a middle-order collapse to post a decent 187/8 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in an IPL match Thursday.
Hardik (32 n o, 2×4, 3×6) hit three sixes and two fours in his unbeaten knock after Yuzvendra Chahal (4/38) reduced MI from a comfortable 124/ 2 to 147/ 7. MI lost five wickets in a space of 3.3 overs for only 23 runs.
This was after a vintage Yuvraj Singh (23) was raising visions of a six sixes over with three maximums in Chahal’s 14th over. However he wasn’t fourth time lucky as Chahal’s courage to maintain flighting the ball yielded results.
Chahal then removed Suryakumar Yadav (38, 24b) and Kieron Pollard (5) in quick succession to bring RCB right back in the match.
It was then left to Hardik to score the bulk of the 30 runs in the final two overs to take MI to a fighting total on a placid batting track. In fact, Hardik’s third and final six went out of the stadium as he gestured to the dressing rooms pointing his bulging biceps.
However at the beginning it looked like MI would cross the 200-run mark as Rohit Sharma (48, 33b) and Quinton de Kock (23, 20b) added 54 for the opening stand but it was foiled by Chahal’s lion-hearted bowling