DUBAI: Opener Quinton de Kock continued his rich vein of form, scoring a 43-ball 53 before Kieron Pollard and Nathan Coulter-Nile provided the late flourish as Mumbai Indians posted 176 for 6 against Kings XI Punjab in an IPL match here on Sunday.
De Kock hit three fours and as many sixes for his fourth fifty of the tournament to anchor the innings before Pollard (34 not out off 12) and Coulter-Nile (24 not out off 12) added 57 runs off 21 balls in the death overs to lift MI past the 170-run mark.
Opting to bat, MI were at a spot of bother when they were reduced to 43 for 3 but De Kock and Krunal Pandya (34 off 30) shared a 58-run stand to steady the ship.
It was the pace duo of Arshdeep Singh (2/35) and Mohammed Shami (2/30) who provided the early breakthroughs, dismissing Rohit Sharma (9) and Suryakumar Yadav (0) respectively to reduce MI to 24 for two in 3.3 overs.
New man Ishan Kishan then became Arshdeep's second victim when he was caught at deep third man while trying to go for a upper cut as MI ended the powerplay at 43 for 3.
Krunal was promoted up the order and he hit his first six when he deposited Chris Jordon's third ball to the stands over deep extra cover.
He then picked up a four off Glenn Maxwell in the next over.
With the spin duo of M Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi bowling in tandem, MI picked up the odd boundaries but couldn't completely free their arms.
When part-time spinner Deepak Hooda was given an over, his short delivery was sent out of the park by de Kock, while M Ashwin conceded 16 runs in his first two overs.
But Bishnoi broke the partnership in his second over when he had Krunal caught at deep square leg.
Hardik Pandya (8) came into the crease and straight away hit the last ball of the over for a six to bring up the team hundred.
De Kock then picked up a four and a six off M Ashwin and then ran a single to complete his fourth fifty of this IPL.
However, Shami returned to get rid of Hardik, while Jordon removed de Kock as MI slipped to 119 for 6 in 17th over.
Pollard then clobbered Arshdeep for successive sixes and Coulter-Nile hit two fours as MI amassed 22 runs in the 18th over.
Two more fours off Shami by Coulter-Nile helped MI pick 19 runs in the penultimate over, while Pollard blasted Jordon for two sixes and a four as MI scored another 20 runs in the last over.
The teams:
Mumbai Indians: KL Rahul (C/wk), M Agarwal, C Gayle, N Pooran, G Maxwell, D Hooda, C Jordan, M Ashwin, R Bishnoi, M Shami, A Singh
Kings XI Punjab: R Sharma (C), Q de Kock (wk), S Yadav, I Kishan, H Pandya, K Pollard, K Pandya, N Coulter-Nile, R Chahar, T Boult, J Bumrah