Mumbai: Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by three wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai yesterday.

The win came off the final ball when Alzarri Joseph hit the ball straight down the ground and ran two to get the winning runs. However, the architect for MI’s famous win was their stand-in-captain Kieron Pollard, who scored 83 runs off just 31 balls.

MI were down and out in their stiff run-chase until the 12th over when they were 94/4. The top order batsmen got decent starts but failed to capitalise. Quinton de Kock (24), Siddesh Lad (15) and Suryakumar Yadav (21) all perished to leave Pollard at the other end.

However, the Trinidadian smacked 10 sixes and 3 fours to take MI to the doorstep of victory before getting out in the final over. But by then, it was too late for KXIP.

Earlier, KXIP scored 197/4 in 20 overs courtesy K.L. Rahul’s maiden IPL century. The KXIP opener remained unbeaten on 100.

Kieron Pollard was chosen as the Man of the Match.

With this victory, Mumbai Indians have climbed to third on the IPL 2019 table, with 8 points from six matches. Kings XI Punjab, who remain on 8 points, have played one additional match and are currently fourth on the table.

Stand-in Skipper

Kieron Pollard was leading Mumbai Indians in the absence of regular captain Rohit Sharma.

Rohit Sharma, who would have played 134 consecutive matches for Mumbai Indians if he had been a part of the match between KXIP and MI, was rested by the team management to give him time to recover from a muscle spasm.