Kieron Pollard’s blistering knock of 35* and crucial three wickets from Rahul Chahar helped MI seal a 13 runs victory over SRH in match 9 at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.
SRH middle continued to collapse as Rahul Chahar and Trent Boult tore their batting line-up to seal a 13 runs win in match 9 of IPL 2021 on Saturday.
Defending the average looking 150, leg spinner Chahar impressed with his fixtures of (3/19 in 4 overs) while Boult (3/28 in 4 overs) struck on their tail to restrict SRH to 137 in 19.4 overs.
Opting to bat first, MI had a good start but Vijay Shankar and Mujeeb Ur Rahman claimed two wickets each to stop the flow of runs in the middle overs.
Rohit Sharma (32 off 25) and Quinton de Kock (40 off 39) scored 53 in the powerplay but then came Vijay Shankar and Mujeeb Ur Rahman came to take wickets in a quick session.
Vijay dismissed Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav (10) in his first two overs. Mujeeb soon dismissed Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan to keep things tighter for MI.
The next man in was Hardik Pandya but he could not produce much as Khaleel Ahmed sent him back on 7.
Rashid Khan, although did not get a wicket but he went economical for SRH with (0/22) in four overs.
However, the powerhouse, Kieron Pollard kept the scorecard moving until 150/5 in his thrilling 35* (22) knock followed by two maximums in the last two balls of the first innings.
Chasing 151, SRH managed to start quite well as Jonny Bairstow 35 (22) and David Warner 36 (34) played sensibly but once the duo went back to the pavilion, the middle order became numb.
With some power hitting, SRH reached 57/0 in the powerplay. Things started working for MI when Bairstow hit the wicket while looking for a sweep off Krunal Pandya.
Chahar then removed Manish Pandey in no time, Hardik’s direct hit found Warner out of the crease and SRH were 91/3.
Chahar struck again in the last over to pick up Virat Singh (11) and Abhishek Singh (2) who were playing their first game for SRH.
Vijay Shankar hit two maximums to Krunal to keep SRH in the game but he kept losing his partners as Abdul Samad (7) was sent back by another direct throw by Hardik Pandya.
Rashid Khan was next on the list as Boult produced a fine Yorker to dismiss him on duck. Vijay too got dismissed in the next over off Jasprit Bumrah and SRH fell short of the run chase once again.