IPL 2017: Twitter Reacts As Mumbai Indians Beat Gujarat Lions To Lead The Table 1

Riding on Nitish Rana’s fifty and a quickfire knock from Kieron Pollard and Rohit Sharma, Mumbai Indians defeated Gujarat Lions by six wickets to register their fourth win on the trot and thus made a move to the top of the table.

Chasing 177 to continue their winning streak, Mumbai were off to a poor start with their opener Parthiv Patel departing for a two-ball duck but Nitish Rana and Jos Buttler put their team on track for a victory with an 85-run stand from only 54 balls before Rana was dismissed by Andrew Tye for 53.

Seven runs later, Buttler also joined Rana in the pavilion, as Gujarat got a chance to claw their way back into the match. However, Kieron Pollard put the hosts in line for a comfortable victory with some big shots.

The hard-hitting batsman had raced to 36 from just 19 balls by the 17th over when Mumbai needed 23 runs from the last three overs. But a brilliant 18th over from Basil Thampi when he conceded just six runs gave the visitors a bleak hope of winning the match.

Andrew Tye then dismissed the dangerous Pollard on the very first ball of the penultimate over to bring his team right into the match. But Rohit Sharma was still holding firm from one end and hit a boundary on the very first ball of the final over to bring the equation down to 4 off the last five balls. The home team eventually reached the target with three balls to spare.

Earlier, a half-century from Brendon McCullum and a quickfire knock from Dinesh Karthik had powered Gujarat Lions to 177 for four in the allotted 20 overs. The Gujarat-based franchise did not enjoy a good start, as Dwayne Smith departed even without opening his account but an 80-run partnership between McCullum and Suresh Raina set the tone for a good total.

But just when the visiting team was looking to accelerate, Raina and McCullum departed in quick succession leaving the team reeling at 99 for three.

The in-form Dinesh Karthik then took the onus on himself to steer his team to a get total. The right-handed batsman scored 48 from only 26 balls, as Gujarat finished their batting innings on a high.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the match:

https://twitter.com/AllTimeBakchod/status/853579783002828800