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IPL 2019: MI vs KXIP, Who said What: World reacts as Pollard steals the show from KL-Gayle

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Pollard scored 83 off just 31 balls [Image: BCCI/IPLT20.com]
Pollard scored 83 off just 31 balls [Image: BCCI/IPLT20.com]

Mumbai Indians received a jolt ahead of the match in the form Rohit Sharma's injury and Kings XI Punjab's openers - Chris Gayle and KL Rahul - made things worse for them after the start of the match.

While Chris Gayle scored a fantastic half-century, KL Rahul went on to score his maiden IPL century. As a result, Kings XI Punjab posted a total of 197 in 20 overs.

During the chase, Mumbai kept on losing wickets at regular intervals but one determined Kieron Pollard did not allow KXIP to get complacent. He kept Mumbai Indians in the chase by scoring 3 fours and 10 sixes.

Before he got out in the 20th over after scoring a 31-ball 83, he reduced the target to 4 runs in 4 balls, which Alzarri Joseph and Rahul Chahar chased down off the last ball.

Here's how the world reacted to Mumbai's thrilling win over Punjab:

Kieron Pollard, MI captain and Man of the Match: I would like to thank God. Need to thank him for giving strength to me for doing the things that I do. Also, love to thank my wife, it's her birthday today and I want to dedicate this to her. I went up the order because I enjoy batting at Wankhede. The plan was to attack Ashwin as spin wasn't doing great. Unfortunately, it didn't happen but it was about staying calm. Was a difficult pitch to bowl on and good to bat on, so we did well with the ball after the start they got. We did pull things back in the middle overs a bit but lost the plot at the end. Again, can't be harsh on the bowlers. We finished on the right end of the result and thanks to God for that too. Obviously, Rohit is the captain of the team and it was only a precautionary measure for the team. He should be back in the next game. I would gladly give it back to him and field at the boundary, while also thinking of what to contribute to the team.

Ravichandran Ashwin, KXIP captain: He (Ankit Rajpoot) injured it in the first over. It was a big bonus that we got three overs from him in the powerplay. We were a bit up and down with our fielding and catching. Probably if we would have been sharper, we would have ended up on the right side. I think it was a defendable total. It was just about par. It is a hard defending ground. We were about 10s for 10-12 overs and then we lost a little momentum while batting which I feel was crucial for us. I thought we pretty good as a bowling unit in bits and pieces. Shami was really good and we were good in the middle overs. Somehow we could not close the game out. Sam was under the pump. It can happen when there is a lot of dew. It is one of a kind experience for him in the IPL. He will get better and get richer with experience. Sometimes with the dew, you can miss the yorker like it happened to Sam. At the end of the day, Pollard batted beautifully and took the game away from us. Quite a lot of positives. We showed a lot of composure with the bat. Rahul batted through and closed out the inning We could have been a little more steelier and smarter with our plans. He (Gayle) said he twisted his back. We have to go check and how he is.

Hardik Pandya: One guy who could have done it, it was Kieron Pollard. Both of us had to go for it but I could not contribute much today. It was still better from the situation we started off. If Polly is there, he could have finished it off one ball and obviously we didn't have any set batsman.

Aakash Chopra:

Harsha Bhogle:

Harbhajan Singh:

Ian Bishop:

Mohammad Kaif:

Ayaz Menon:

Boria Majumdar:

Danielle Wyatt:

Ranveer Singh:

Rahul Sharma:

Jatin Sapru:

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