Pollard, Rohit hit fifties as Mumbai post 183/7 against CSK

Mumbai, April 17 (IANS) Late assault by Kieron Pollard (64 off 30 balls) and a timely knock by skipper Rohit Sharma (50 off 31 balls) helped Mumbai Indians (MI) post a challenging 183/7 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.

The Mumbai duo rescued the hosts from a jittery 57/4 by scripting a rollicking 75-run stand off only 33 balls.
Opting to bat first, Mumbai got off to a worst possible start after losing opener Parthiv Patel (0) in the very fourth ball of the innings.
The wicketkeeper-batsman, facing his first delivery, failed to connect a glance and war rapped plumb in front of the wicket off Ashish Nehra.
Nehra again struck in his second over, seeing the back of the dangerous Corey Anderson (4). The hosts were struggling at six runs at the loss of two wickets.
The other pacer Ishwar Pandey, who began with a maiden, then dismissed Lendl Simmons (5). The West Indies batsman, who opened the innings in place of an injured Aaron Finch, departed in the fourth over failing to middle his shot and Faf du Plessis took the offering at mid on.
That left Mumbai tottering at 12/3.
Sharma, who had walked in after Anderson’s dismissal, was joined by Harbhajan Singh – who nearly pulled off an improbable victory for Mumbai Indians against Kings XI Punjab last week.
Harbhajan straight away took on the bowlers scoring a quickfire 24 off 21 balls, which included two fours and one six.
But Harbhajan’s short innings came to an end in the 10th over, which brought together Pollard and Sharma.
Rohit and Pollard went on the offensive and fifty of the partnership was completed in just 23 balls.
As Rohit was aiming to finish it off for Mumbai, Nehra struck again. The batsman went for a slog to a slower delivery, and finished in the hands of Dwayne Bravo in the deep.
Ambati Rayudu also played a crucial 16 ball 29.
For Chennai Super Kings Ashish Nehra was again the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-0-23-3 with an impressive economy of 5.75.
Dwayne Bravo took two wickets giving away 30 rusn off his four overs.
Under-performing all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was again hit for runs finishing with figures of 4-0-49-0.