Pollard shines in Mumbai's win over Rajasthan

Rahul Dravid made a surprising call of getting Mumbai into bat, an option that Harbhajan was going to opt for himself had he won the toss. Dravid had initially thought that the adjacent strip would be used, which looked like a turner, and had got Hogg in place of Hodge. The much awaited return of Sachin Tendulkar though was not meant to be as he was still recovering from his finger injury.

Chavan and Singh started with a couple of frugal overs, but the third over saw two sixes and two fours dispatched off Chavan. It was not going to be Suman’s day though, as he got taken out by a terrific catch from Trivedi making a well-timed dive to his left and plucking out the ball from thin air. Levi was looking in ominous form but he was stopped short by an enthused Brad Hogg on his IPL debut. Hogg then bowled Rohit Sharma in the same over, and it looked like the Royals would get some breathing space. But Rayadu launched Hogg was a massive six over mid-wicket in the 11th over, and Pollard followed with a huge one off Cooper over long-on. As the Royals would know later, it was a sign of things to come.

Pollard hit four consecutive boundaries off Botha in the 14th over, three of them between mid-wicket and long-on. He was muscling the ball around the park on his way to his highest IPL score of 64, as he powered another string of boundaries in the 17th over off Chavan. Pollard departed soon after that, but the momentum would stay, with Harbhajan hitting two sixes off his first two deliveries and propelling Mumbai to 197.

With the highest score of the season looming over the Royals, the openers were keen to hit the ground running. Rahane played a lovely wristy flick off Malinga behind square in the first over, but the same class eluded his senior partner Dravid who once again gave his wicket away in a disappointing fashion, top edging the ball as he attempted an uncharacteristic cross-batted slog off Munaf Patel in the second over. Srivats Goswami followed Dravid the next ball, inside-edging the ball to the keeper to reduce the score to seven for two.Rahane had been run out on a duck in his previous outing, and he was looking to make up for that. He let himself loose with a front foot pull for six over square leg on Munaf to start a healthy partnership with Owais Shah. The dew was making the ball come nicely on to the bat and both the batsmen started scoring freely, but just as they were starting to loosen their arms, Rahane misread Pollard’s variation in pace and holed out to long on. 197 looked suddenly formidable with Rajasthan at 89 for 3 with 109 to get off 53 balls, but Owais Shah chose the moment to come into his own. Shah hit a clean slog sweep over square leg on Pollard before hitting a couple of clean hits on Harbhajan. Maneria came up with a couple of strong hits as well and Royals scored 35 in two overs off Harbhajan and Pollard. With 64 required off 36, the score suddenly looked very gettable, and Harbhajan had no option but to bring back his ace in the sleeve.

Malinga came in and did exactly what he was brought on to do, dismissing Shah on the first ball with a trademark yorker. Botha followed with a tame loft to the long on fielder two balls later, and Mumbai were firmly in control of the match again. Cooper came in and hit a couple of ominous sixes but was bowled by Munaf. With 41 required of 18, a close finish looked possible, but Pollard made a triumphant return with 3 wickets in the 18th over to finish with a four-fer. The formalities were completed with Malinga giving away a single run in the penultimate over and Munaf taking the last wicket with 2 balls to spare.

Mumbai will take away a lot from this match, their batting finally scoring big runs and bowlers managing to close out the match just as Royals looked threateningly close. They now head the table with 3 wins. Royals though made a spirited attempt at the mammoth score and will feel heartened by good performances of their youngsters and a shining innings by Owais Shah.

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