Pollard hammers 33-ball 64 as Mumbai beats Rajasthan

The match, as it happened

Scorecard

Kudos to whoever has decided Kieron Pollard’s batting number this season. Until last year, Mumbai Indians had typecast him as a striker. Fit to bat only after 15 overs, a victim of wrong perception. One such move had cost them an IPL final.

At 68 for three, Rajasthan Royals had something of a stranglehold over Mumbai. Who’s lined up next? Dinesh Karthik perhaps or James Franklin? But refreshingly, the word consolidation was damned.

An in-form batsman must face the maximum number of balls. This is T20 and every delivery is at a premium. And so, Pollard walked in at five and summoned the kind of violent hitting that only he can.

His 33-ball 64 propelled Mumbai Indians to 197 for six. Sure enough, those towering sixes sailed over the top tiers. Two near disasters had been averted. A straight hit nearly missed non-striker Rayudu’s groin. A similar stroke few overs later could have crushed Ankeet Chavan’s fingers. But it ricocheted off the sticks and still sped to the ropes. There were some orthodox hits, too, a half-arm pull off Hogg for instance.

Ambati Rayudu (47), Rohit Sharma and Harbhajan Singh played short, delightful innings but without assaulting the spirit like the West Indian did. Kevon Cooper, hitherto spotless with his length, was creamed for 43 runs in his four overs.

Rajasthan were very much in control until Pollard’s advent, courtesy a veteran cricketer. Don’t tell Brad Hogg that, at 40, he better be ready to face mid-life crises.

Four years after retiring from international cricket, he’s dared to make a comeback in Twenty20, of all formats. His craft — notably the back-of-the-arm delivery — is still intact.

Hogg choked Mumbai with a probing spell, and not even Pollard had a measure of him. But the pitch, one was given to understand, wasn’t the one where Mumbai lost to Pune Warriors.

There was an over in which Hogg foxed Sharma twice with his wrong ones. Sharma, who until then had batted fluidly, was clearly not reading Hogg from the hand.

He deceived Sharma with one that made haste off the pitch and deranged his stumps. A few balls later, he cleaned up Richard Levi — the stocky South African played all over a full-length ball.

He could have had Pollard in the same over but a tough chance eluded the fielder at first slip. Thereafter, it was all Pollard. But by the time he was dismissed, the Royals had their heads tucked under their arms.