On This Day: Mumbai Indians’ Hardik Pandya smashed career-best 91 vs KKR

Hardik Pandya smashed career-best 91: The premier all-rounder kept fighting till the end in a near-improbable run-chase in Kolkata.

On this day in 2019, Mumbai Indians all-rounder Hardik Pandya scored a fighting seventh T20 half-century to give his team more than just a chance in an otherwise near-improbable run-chase.

Coming in to bat at No. 6 in the ninth over in a daunting 233-run chase during the 47th match of the 12th season of the Indian Premier League against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Pandya hit his first six on only the second ball that he faced.

With MI needing to score more than 15 runs per over to win the match, Pandya seemed to have made it a point to settle for nothing less than numerous sixes to put the pressure back on the hosts.

Within no time, the right-hand batsman had hit five mountainous sixes. Having hit four sixes off KKR spinner Piyush Chawla, Pandya sure targeted the leg-spinner despite the latter turning the ball away from him.

Having hit a six off Knight Riders pacer Harry Gurney in the 13th over, Pandya hit another six off KKR all-rounder Sunil Narine to register his third half-century in the IPL. A 17-ball half-century saw Pandya registering the fastest half-century of the season.

Hardik Pandya smashed career-best 91

The absolutely frenzy of an innings saw Pandya hitting sixes at will against everyone who was introduced into the attack. Before getting out in the 18th over, Pandya scored 91 (34) with the help of six fours and nine sixes to culminate his bonkers innings as MI lost the match by 34 runs.

It was Indians captain Rohit Sharma who won the toss and invited Kolkata in to bat in the first innings. On the back of individual half-centuries from Andre Russell (80*), Shubman Gill (76) and Chris Lynn (54), Knight Riders had scored a formidable 232/2 in 20 overs.