Hardik Pandya hit 34 off 1 over in domestic T20
Hardik Pandya hit 34 off 1 over in domestic T20

Riding on Hardik Pandya’s blistering batting in the last over, Mumbai Indians recovered from a middle-order collapse to post a massive 184 for eight in their first game against Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS).

The two-time champions were reeling at 154 for seven by the end of the 19th over before Pandya hit four sixes and a boundary off the last over bowled by Ashok Dinda to close the innings on a great note.

Earlier, when Steve Smith invited the Mumbai-based outfit to bat first, Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler were looking determined to prove the Australia skipper’s decision wrong.

The MI openers fired on all cylinders right from the start and added 45 runs in only 25 balls before Smith handed the ball to Imran Tahir. The decision proved to be a masterstroke as the world number one bowler in ODIs and T20Is accounted for Mumbai’s top three batsmen in his first two overs to reduce them to 62 for three.

The Protea star, who was signed as a replacement for an injured Mitchell Marsh, drew the first blood by removing Parthiv Patel in the fifth over. In his next over, he accounted for the skipper Rohit Sharma and Jos Buttler inside three balls to derail Mumbai’s innings.

A 30-run partnership between Nitish Rana and Ambati Rayudu stopped the rot for a while before the latter offered an easy return catch to Rajat Bhatia.

15 runs later, Bhatia gave the visitors another setback by picking up Mumbai’s last year’s star performer Krunal Pandya, before Rana joined his teammates in the hut.

Kieron Pollard then tried to give the MI innings the much-needed impetus but just when he was getting in rhythm his promising 17-ball 27 run knock was ended by a sensational catch from Mayank Agarwal.

After that, it was all Hardik Pandya show as his incredible power-hitting helped Mumbai to post a massive total.

 

Here is how Twitter reacted to the MI innings:

https://twitter.com/ikpsgill1/status/850018250423287809

https://twitter.com/CricketDevotee/status/850009724552716288

 

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