IN PICS: Rana and Pandya pull off stunning MI win

Sport360 staff 22:32 09/04/2017
Mumbai players celebrate.

Mumbai Indians pulled off a stunning victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday night thanks to the quite incredible efforts of Nitish Rana and Hardik Pandya.

Mumbai looked to be dead and buried before a quite superb 50 from Rana and Pandya’s unbeaten 29 from just 11 balls.

Needing 60 to win from the final four overs, Mumbai battered the Kolkata attack that crumbled under the pressure.

A calamitous final over in the field saw one routine piece of fielding go through mid-on’s legs for four and another dropped catch contribute a further two runs to the Mumbai cause which proved pivotal.

But nothing could be taken away from the efforts of Rana and Pandya, who hauled their team first in contention and then over the line in a remarkable run chase.

Kolkata were not only left licking their wounds in a deflating defeat, but also at bludgeoning opener Chris Lynn leaving the field in the second innings with a shoulder injury that will have the team sweating over his fitness.

All eyes were on Lynn early on after his blistering 93* in Kolkata’s record breaking win first time out, but it was Manish Pandey who took centre stage.

The Indian batsman paced his innings to perfection before launching into a devastating late onslaught that took Kolkata to 178-7 from their 20 overs.

Things didn’t look to be going Mumbai’s way in the chase, both Jos Buttler and Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma given out to erroneous lbw decisions before Rana and Pandya took matters into their own hands.

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