A late cameo by Hardik Pandya (57 off 28) helped Mumbai Indians post a challenging 171/4 against Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Wankhede Stadium here on Thursday.
For Mumbai, Pandya (eight boundaries and two sixes) and Kieron Pollard (33 off 38 balls) remained unbeaten to pile up a 92-run partnership off 51 balls for the fifth wicket.
Put into bat, Mumbai got off to a modest start scoring 25 off the first four overs, but lost opener Parthiv Patel (21) in the second ball of the very next over.
Patel ran down the track to hit spinner Shakib Al Hasan straight down the ground but ended up flicking it uppishly, which landed straight into the hands of Manish Pandey standing at deep mid-wicket.
Patel's opening partner and in-form batsman Lendl Simmons (14) too did not last long.
Simmons hit pacer Morne Morkel for a six. Morkel banged the next ball in, got a lot of bounce and Simmons tried to uppercut it, but ended up scooping it feebly into the hands of Pandey.
Incoming batsman Ambati Rayudu (2) also did not trouble the scorers too much. With the wicket of Rayudu, Mumbai were struggling at 47/3 in 6.3 overs.
With wickets tumbling at the other end, skipper Rohit Sharma faced his game positively striking five boundaries in his short innings of 30 off 21 balls.
But a beauty from spinner Sunil Narine which Rohit failed to pick in the fourth ball of the 12th over saw his end. Mumbai were 79/4 in 11.4 overs.
For Kolkata, Shakib Al Hasan (2/22) was the pick of the bowlers.
