The Mumbai Indians held on to their chances of making the Pepsi IPL 2015 Playoffs by the skin of their teeth after they defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 runs at the Wankhede Stadium. After giving the visitors a target of 172, MI staged a spectacular comeback in the match, denying the visitors the opportunity to score 12 runs in the final over.

KKR are among the best-chasing teams in the IPL and they were expected to chase down 172. Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir gave the defending champions just the platform from which they could pursue the chase; the opening pair added 45 runs in 5.3 overs when Uthappa’s lap shot landed in the hands of Lasith Malinga at short fine-leg.

Gambhir held his end up and batted past the half-way stage, scoring 38 from 28 balls, before he yorked himself while attempting to charge down the track and lost his stumps. Shakib-al-Hasan’s cameo – 23 from 15 balls – helped KKR inch closer to the chase.

But the performance that took KKR to the brink, and the dismissal that possibly tilted the match decisively in favour of MI, was that of Yusuf Pathan (52 from 37 balls, 5 fours and 2 sixes). Batting at number four, Yusuf began with a boundary, but thereafter shifted between playing conservatively in the middle overs and stepping on the accelerator in the final quarter of the innings. He hit a boundary each in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th overs to take his team within striking distance. But when he top-edged an attempted pull in the final over, which was pouched by the wicket-keeper, he had given MI a sniff of a chance. Piyush Chawla tried hard, but couldn’t pick the slower ball and failed to put bat to ball. KKR finished their twenty overs at 166-7, six short of what they needed to get.

For MI, the wickets were shared, with the five specialist bowlers picking up a wicket each. But it was the over bowled by Pollard – an unlikely choice given he had bowled only six overs in the entire season – that made the difference in the final analysis. The Trinidadian picked up the all important wicket of Yusuf Pathan with his first delivery, and then conceded only six runs in the remaining five deliveries to deny the visitors.

Earlier in the evening, the Mumbai Indians posted 171 runs on the board after being put in to bat. After Parthiv Patel (21 from 14 balls) and Lendl Simmons (14 from 16 balls) had given the team a steady start, MI lost three wickets in three overs – including those of the openers and Ambati Rayudu – by the time seven overs were bowled. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard then kept the KKR bowlers at bay for a period of five overs, adding 32 runs in the period. The MI skipper hit five boundaries, which included a few crisp cut shots, and raced to 30 from 20 balls before he played all around a Sunil Narine delivery and had his stumps rattled.

MI were 74 for 4 when Rohit Sharma was dismissed in the twelfth over. With Pollard struggling for timing and only the lower middle order left to bat, it appeared MI would be lucky to get to a total of 140. However, in those dire situations emerged a new hero for the hosts. Hardik Pandya, who had played one match-winning knock earlier in the season and had drawn high praise from the coach Ricky Ponting, lit up the stadium yet again. The Baroda all-rounder was harsh on the KKR quicks; he scored 25 runs off nine deliveries he faced from Umesh Yadav, and scored 24 from 12 Andre Russell deliveries. He got to his maiden IPL half-century in 25 balls, carried on batting, and finished unbeaten on 61 from 31 balls, which included eight boundaries and two sixes. He, and Pollard (33 from 38 balls), who took ten deliveries to get off the mark and played an uncharacteristic innings, stitched together a 92-run partnership.

KKR had the lids on the MI batsmen until the final stretch of the innings. MI were 112 for 4 at the end of the 16th over, but took full toll of some ordinary bowling from the KKR quicks to add 59 runs in the last four overs, to finish at a competitive 171-4.

Shakib-al-Hasan, who rejoined the KKR lineup after a brief trip to Bangladesh to fulfill national commitments, was the pick of the bowlers; he bowled his left-arm spin and returned with figures of two for 22. Morne Morkel who returned to the MI lineup, finished with figures of 1-27, while Sunil Narine finished with figures of 1-38.

Brief Scores

Mumbai Indians 171-4 in 20.0 Overs (Hardik Pandya 61*, Shakib-al-Hasan 2-22) Kolkata Knight Riders 166-7 in 20.0 Overs (Yusuf Pathan 52, Kieron Pollard 1-6)

Man of the Match: Hardik Pandya, for his unbeaten 61 (31 balls)