Super Tyephoon!

Mumbai: Kieron Pollard made an eventful return to the playing XI of Mumbai Indians by smashing his first half century of IPL11 in their penultimate match against Kings XI Punjab at Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday. The burly West Indian’s big hitting not only helped the hosts recover from a precarious situation of 71/4 but also powered them to a challenging total of 186/8.

Pollard who had scored 76 runs in his first seven matches returned to side to notch up a 22-ball fifty before falling to R. Ashwin in the 16th over. He was involved in a crucial fifth wicket partnership of 65 runs in 36 balls with Krunal Pandya (32).

Mumbai, however, failed to capitalise on Pollard’s prowess completely as Andrew Tye who got three top order wickets returned to haunt them at the death as well to finish with outstanding figures of 4/16. Purple cap holder Tye has now 24 wickets in the tournament. Ashwin under bowled himself despite picking 2/18 in his three overs. Rest of the KXIP bowlers conceded too many runs.

Put in to bat first, Mumbai openers Suryakumar Yadav (27) and Evin Lewis gave their side yet another good start with the former hammering Ankit Rajpoot for two sixes and two boundaries to lift Mumbai after a sedate start. But Tye struck in his first ball to castle Lewis after the pair had made 37 in three overs. New batsman Ishan Kishan continued the aggression with two sixes off Mohit Sharma. Tye sent back Kishan and Suryakumar in successive deliveries in his second over. Rohit Sharma failed to get going again.

Pollard who was benched after a poor first half of the tournament replaced JP Duminy in the side. He did the rebuilding job in the company of Krunal. After two light towers malfunctioned to stop play for about 12 minutes, the hosts found their mojo back. Krunal got into act with two sixes and a boundary off Marcus Stoinis. Pollard two found his touch as Mumbai recovered quickly before Stoinis brought an end to the 65-run fifth wicket partnership by removing Krunal. Ashwin held himself back and Tye for the death overs. The captain returned for his second over to dismiss Pollard and Tye bowled another tight over as MI stumbled from 151/5 in 15 overs to fewer than 200 ultimately.

Earlier, Yuvraj Singh and Manoj Tiwary came in for visitors in place of Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair.