IPL: Mumbai Indians beat Gujarat Lions by six wickets

Mumbai v Gujarat Lions: Scores

Mumbai Indians win by 6 wickets 

Mumbai Indians inns: 177-4 (Rana 53, Sharma 40, Pollard 39; Tye 2-34)

Gujarat Lions inns: 176-4 (McCullum 64, Karthik 48; McClenaghan 2-24) 

Match report

Kieron Pollard again impressed as Mumbai Indians successfully chased down 177 to earn a fourth straight IPL win , beating Gujarat Lions by six wickets on Sunday.

Pollard followed up his match-winning 70 against RCB on Friday with 39 off 23 balls to help steer Mumbai to a victory, that sends his side top of the table, over Gujarat at the Wankhede Stadium.

Captain Rohit Sharma (40no off 29 balls) also played a vital hand in the run-chase, while earlier Nitish Rana (53 off 36) continued his fine run of form, scoring his second half century of IPL 10.

Jos Buttler (26 off 24) cracked a couple of big sixes at the top of the order for Mumbai, though he was again guilty of failing to capitalise on a strong start.

Meanwhile, his England team-mate Jason Roy returned to the Lions line-up in a bizarre pre-game twist, with Aaron Finch ruled out after his kitbag had been lost in transit to Mumbai.

Equally strange was Gujarat's decision to drop Roy down to No 6 in the order, with the usual England opener facing only seven balls at the back-end of the innings.

Brendon McCullum earlier smashed 64 from 44 deliveries - featuring six fours and three sixes - but Gujarat's total was not great enough.

Put into bat by their hosts, Gujarat lost Dwayne Smith third ball to the impressive Mitchell McClenaghan (2-24).

Suresh Raina (28 off 29) and McCullum rebuilt, with the latter hitting two sixes off the returning Lasith Malinga's sixth over.

But when Raina eventually fell to Harbhajan Singh (1-22) in the 12th, surprisingly it was Ishan Kishan, and not Roy, who came to the crease.

Kishan (11) struggled for timing throughout his 14-ball innings, and while Roy still didn't appear when McCullum was bowled by Malinga (1-51), Dinesh Karthik did at least inflict some damage, blasting 48 off 26 balls.

Roy (14no) finally got a go with 14 balls remaining in the Lions innings and swiftly blasted Malinga for six over long-on in the penultimate over.

Their total looked to be an imposing one, especially when Parthiv Patel departed for a two-ball duck to start the Mumbai run-chase.

It could have been even worse for the Indians in the second over, but Rana was dropped by Roy when on nine - a costly error as he kicked on to a 32-ball half century.

Buttler was denied much of the strike, though did manage to get away a ramped six off Basil Thampi and a superbly struck six over long-on off Ravindra Jadeja.

When Rana and Buttler were removed within two overs over each other midway through the innings it looked like Mumbai might be wobbling, but experienced pair Pollard and Sharma steadied the ship.

Pollard fell to Andrew Tye (2-34) in the penultimate over, but there would be no late drama, with Sharma scoring the winning runs with three balls to spare.