Invited to bat, the elegant Rohit laid the bases with a 70 of 45 balls, chaining his innings with eight fours and three sixes.
Scorekeeper | Points table
So the duo of Kieron pollard Y Hardik pandya He broke four and six at will, scoring 67 runs on 23 balls to raise IM to 191 for four of 83 for three in the 14th.
Chasing a stiff target of 192, Kings XI Punjab stopped at 143 for eight, with Nicholas Pooran making 44 of 27 balls.
Earlier, Pollard came out undefeated with a 47 of 20 balls, while Hardik was not left out on 30 of 11 balls, the two hitting six sixes and four of them.
MI had 25 runs in the last over and Pollard sent Krishnappa Gowtham’s last three balls into the stands at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, scoring 19 in the penultimate over and 18 in the 18.
A total of 104 runs came on the last 36 balls despite an excellent over in the middle from Mohammed Shami.
IMs were 87 of three at the end of 14th, but they upped the ante with Pollard and Rohit connecting six each with Ravi Bishnoi, to pick up 15 runs from 15th.
Rohit scored 22 runs in the 16th inning pitched by James Neesham.
Pollard and Hardik’s partner were then left to launch a brutal attack.
The start was unfavorable for the defending champs when Sheldon Cottrell castled Quinton de Kock with a late swing.
Crushed by five sixes in a change from his previous outing, it was a new day, a new game for Cottrell, as he started with a wicket maiden.
Rohit reached 5,000 IPL runs with glorious coverage on his first ball of the innings, joining Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina at the club.
Three balls later, Rohit hit one along the ground through the cover point region for another boundary.
Shami came back to hit the pads and forced the referee to raise his finger with a vociferous plea. However, the decision was rejected after a review as the ball appeared to go through the stump of the leg.
Leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi rushed into the attack in the fourth over and while Shami couldn’t hit the ball up first, India’s pacemaker ran to Suryakumar Yadav with a short fine leg direct hit to leave MI at 21 for two in the room more.
Rohit gave himself some room and played Gowtham between the middle and extra coverage and cut the next ball through the spot region for another fine boundary.
Having reached 14 of 21 balls, Ishan Kishan lifted Bishnoi by a massive six over the middle of deep wicket to break the shackles.
Kishan soon left to pave the way for Pollard’s entrance.
In response, KXIP lost grounds at regular intervals to lose its second game on the trot. They were never in the game after losing the opening duo wickets in the form of captain KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal, despite Pooran playing some attractive shots.
For the Mumbai Indians, there were two plots each for James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, and Jasprit Bumrah.
.
