Abu Dhabi, Oct 25 (UNI) Brilliant half century by Hardik Pandya 60 off 21 not out and Saurabh Tiwary 34 off 25 helped MI post challenging 195/ in 20 overs against RR in the 45th Match of IPL at Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Sunday.
Suryakumar and Ishan played a pivotal role bringing up 83 runs for second wicket but it was Tiwary and Hardik 64 run stand for 5th wicket that took MI score to challenging 195.
Hardik was the star performer for MI bringing in 27 runs in the last over hitting Tyagi for 1, 6, 4, 4, 6,6.
Winning the toss MI batting first lost its opener Quinton de Kock early at 6 in first over bowled by Archer. Kock and Ishan had put 7 runs for opening stand.
After de Kock's departure Suryakumar and Ishan played sensibly taking singles and two's and when opportunity came striked for boundaries and added valuable 83 run stand for second wicket.
Ishan was the second victim when bowled by Tyagi in 11th over at 37 off 36 balls (4 fours, 1 six).
Further wickets continued to fall in form of Suryakumar (40) and skipper Pollard (6) in 13th over, Saurabh Tiwary in 18.1 over at 34 after playing a good knock.
MI managed to pull off 79 runs from last five overs with Hardik 60 off 21 (2 fours and 7 sixes) and Krunal 3 remained not out.
For RR wicket-takers were Shreyas Gopal 2/30, Archer 2/31 and Tyagi 1/45.
UNI NC 2126