Mumbai: All-rounder Hardik Pandya kept defending champion Mumbai Indians in Indian Premier League contention with a 13-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.
Hardik hit an unbeaten 35 off 20 balls to lift his team to 181-4 after Kolkata captain Dinesh Karthik chose to field.
Hardik then took 2-19 to restrict Kolkata to 168-6 as Mumbai moved to fifth with eight points from four wins. Kolkata is third on 10 points after winning five of its 10 games.
Kolkata seemed to be cruising to victory after Robin Uthappa (54) capitalised on an early dropped catch to hit his first half-century in this year’s IPL.
Uthappa and Nitish Rana (31) featured in an 84-run third wicket stand after Mayank Markande dropped an easy chance at mid-on when Uthappa was on 4.
Uthappa pounced on the chance, hitting six fours and three sixes, including four successive boundaries in one over off Ben Cutting.
But Markande broke through in the 13th over when Uthappa holed out in the deep to Cutting and Hardik dismissed Rana in the next over to reduce Kolkata to 115-4.
Hard-hitting Andre Russell (9) and Sunil Narine (5) also perished while going for big shots and, despite Karthik’s unbeaten 36 off 26 balls, Mumbai always looked in control to deny Kolkata’s chase.
Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav (59 off 39) and Evin Lewis (43 off 28) provided Mumbai a rapid start of 91 off 56 before Kolkata hit back through Russell (2-12) and Narine (2-35).
Lewis sliced Russell’s slower delivery to short third man before the West Indian seamer found an edge off Yadav, who hit seven fours and two sixes.
Narine accounted for the wickets of captain Rohit Sharma (11) and Krunal Pandya (14) as both batsmen attempted extravagant shots before Hardik’s late blitz provided Mumbai enough runs to defend.
