The last three overs in the Mumbai Indians saw the duo of Kieron Pollard and Nathan Coulter-Nile hit 22, 12 and 20 runs. More than the 54 runs off the last three overs, it is the way the Mumbai batsmen finished that will see them walk out high on confidence as they look to defend 176 against Kings XI Punjab at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
Having started off poorly, it was a 34-run cameo from Krunal Pandya that first saw the Mumbai innings come back on track before Quinton de Kock hit fifth gear to finish with a 43-ball 53.
But the 57-run partnership between Pollard and Coulter-Nile off just 21 balls changed the whole complexion of the game and while it looked that MI will finish around 150, they added those extra 26 runs that will be tough to chase down on a wicket which Krunal called double paced.
Commenting on the role the trio of Krunal, Hardik Pandya and Pollard play, Krunal said: "Polly, Hardik and myself know our roles pretty well. No one needs to tell us who needs to bat when."
What made the last three overs look all the more special was that the 16th and 17th over had seen the Mumbai batsmen score three and five runs respectively.
But Pollard got stuck into Arshdeep Singh in the 18th over and there was no looking back after that.
The only silver lining for KXIP is the fact that the top two run-getters in the 13th edition of the IPL are from Punjab -- KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal. And even Chris Gayle has shown great form coming into the game in the last game and hitting a fifty.
( With inputs from ANI )
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