Kieron Pollard walked out at 81 for 3 in the tenth over at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on 1 May 2021, with Mumbai Indians needing 138 more from 62 balls against Chennai Super Kings. Thirty-four balls later he was walking off with 87 not out, eight sixes and six fours, and Mumbai had completed what was then the second-highest successful chase in IPL history: 219 for 6 against Chennai's 218 for 4, sealed by two runs off the final ball.
The numbers alone made it remarkable: 437 runs in an evening, a fifty in 17 balls, 16 needed off Lungi Ngidi's last over and taken with nothing to spare. What made it legendary was that one man shaped both innings. Before he hit a ball, Pollard had bowled two overs for 12 runs and taken two wickets in one of them, the only interruption in a Chennai innings that otherwise ran away from Mumbai. Then he did the rest himself. Three days later the season was suspended because of COVID-19 cases inside the bubbles, and this game became the last great night of the Indian leg of IPL 2021.
The night Delhi became a launch pad
Chennai's 218: three partnerships and one interruption
Mumbai won the toss and chose to bowl, a decision that looked sensible for six balls. Trent Boult had Ruturaj Gaikwad caught by Hardik Pandya in the first over, and Chennai were 4 for 1.
What followed was a 108-run stand for the second wicket between Moeen Ali and Faf du Plessis. Moeen made 58 from 36 balls with five fours and five sixes; du Plessis made 50 from 28 with four sixes. In overs nine to eleven Chennai added 51 runs, and at 112 for 1 a total near 240 looked possible on a small, flat Delhi ground.
Jasprit Bumrah broke the stand in the 11th over when Moeen edged to Quinton de Kock. Then Pollard, bowling his gentle medium pace, produced the over that briefly turned the match. In the 12th over du Plessis picked out Bumrah in the deep, and four balls later Suresh Raina was caught by Krunal Pandya for 2. Chennai had gone from 112 for 1 to 116 for 4 inside two overs.
Rayudu's 20-ball fifty
The fifth-wicket pair of Ambati Rayudu and Ravindra Jadeja did not lose another wicket. They added 102 unbeaten runs, and Rayudu scored 72 of his side's total from 27 balls, with seven sixes and four fours. He reached fifty off 20 balls in the 18th over.
The scoring in Chennai's last five overs read 17, 21, 20, 10, 14, which is 82 runs from 30 balls. Dhawal Kulkarni's 16th over went for 17, with Rayudu hitting the last two balls for six. Bumrah's 17th over cost 21, including a no-ball that Rayudu struck for six. Boult's 18th went for 20, with two more sixes. Bumrah finished with 1 for 56, the kind of figures he almost never returns, and Kulkarni with 0 for 48. Jadeja's 22 not out from 22 balls looks modest on the card, but he gave Rayudu the strike and kept the wickets intact.
From 136 for 4 after 15 overs, Chennai reached 218 for 4. In the 2021 season, that was supposed to be a winning score.
Mumbai's chase: a fast start, then a stall
Rohit Sharma and de Kock gave the chase the start it needed: 30 runs after three overs, 58 after six, and 71 without loss when Rohit (35 off 24) was caught by Gaikwad off Shardul Thakur in the eighth over.
Then Chennai's spinners pulled it back. Jadeja had Suryakumar Yadav caught behind by MS Dhoni for 3 in the ninth over, and Moeen took a return catch to remove de Kock for 38 in the tenth. Overs 10, 11 and 12 brought 1, 3 and 10 runs. After ten overs they were 81 for 3; after twelve, 94 for 3. The required rate had climbed above 15 an over, with 125 needed from 48 balls.
Pollard faced his first two balls from Moeen and scored nothing off either.
The thirteenth over and everything after
The match turned in the 13th over, bowled by Jadeja. Pollard hit the third ball for six and the fifth and sixth for six more. The over went for 20, and Chennai's spinners had nothing left to hide behind.
Ngidi's 14th over cost 16, with two more sixes from Pollard. Thakur's 15th cost 23: three wides, a six and three fours, and with them Pollard reached fifty off 17 balls. Mumbai had scored 59 runs in three overs and were 153 for 3, needing 66 from 30.
Krunal, who had made 32 from 23 balls, took Ngidi for 16 in the 16th over, and then Sam Curran almost stopped the chase. His 17th over cost two runs and he trapped Krunal lbw. The fourth-wicket stand had been worth 89, but Mumbai now needed 48 from 18.
Thakur's 18th over went for 17, Pollard again doing most of the damage. In the 19th, Curran was hit for six, six and two by Hardik before Hardik (16 off 7) was caught by du Plessis. Pollard took a single and Jimmy Neesham was caught by Thakur first ball. Curran finished with 3 for 34, Mumbai were 203 for 6, and because the batters had changed ends, Pollard would face every ball of the last over.
Sixteen off six
Ngidi's final over went like this:
- Ball 1: dot. Fifteen needed from five.
- Ball 2: four. Eleven from four.
- Ball 3: four. Seven from three.
- Ball 4: dot. Seven from two, and Chennai were favourites again.
- Ball 5: six over the leg side. One needed to tie, two to win from the last ball.
- Ball 6: two runs, and Mumbai had won by four wickets.
Pollard finished with 87 not out from 34 balls and a strike rate of 255.88. Ngidi finished with 0 for 62 from his four overs. Pollard was named player of the match, the obvious choice for 2 for 12 and 87 not out in the same game.
Data deep-dive: the scorecard behind the legend
Chennai Super Kings 218/4 (20 overs)
| Batter | How out | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruturaj Gaikwad | c Hardik Pandya b Boult | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Moeen Ali | c de Kock b Bumrah | 58 | 36 | 5 | 5 |
| Faf du Plessis | c Bumrah b Pollard | 50 | 28 | 2 | 4 |
| Suresh Raina | c Krunal Pandya b Pollard | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Ambati Rayudu | not out | 72 | 27 | 4 | 7 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | not out | 22 | 22 | 2 | 0 |
| Mumbai bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trent Boult | 4 | 42 | 1 |
| Dhawal Kulkarni | 4 | 48 | 0 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | 4 | 56 | 1 |
| Rahul Chahar | 4 | 32 | 0 |
| Jimmy Neesham | 2 | 26 | 0 |
| Kieron Pollard | 2 | 12 | 2 |
Mumbai Indians 219/6 (20 overs)
| Batter | How out | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quinton de Kock | c & b Moeen Ali | 38 | 28 | 4 | 1 |
| Rohit Sharma | c Gaikwad b Thakur | 35 | 24 | 4 | 1 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | c Dhoni b Jadeja | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Krunal Pandya | lbw b Curran | 32 | 23 | 2 | 2 |
| Kieron Pollard | not out | 87 | 34 | 6 | 8 |
| Hardik Pandya | c du Plessis b Curran | 16 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| Jimmy Neesham | c Thakur b Curran | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Chennai bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deepak Chahar | 4 | 37 | 0 |
| Sam Curran | 4 | 34 | 3 |
| Lungi Ngidi | 4 | 62 | 0 |
| Shardul Thakur | 4 | 56 | 1 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 3 | 29 | 1 |
| Moeen Ali | 1 | 1 | 1 |
The chase, over by over from the moment Pollard arrived
| Over | Bowler | Runs in over | Score after | Needed | Balls left |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Moeen Ali | 1 | 81/3 | 138 | 60 |
| 11 | Jadeja | 3 | 84/3 | 135 | 54 |
| 12 | Thakur | 10 | 94/3 | 125 | 48 |
| 13 | Jadeja | 20 | 114/3 | 105 | 42 |
| 14 | Ngidi | 16 | 130/3 | 89 | 36 |
| 15 | Thakur | 23 | 153/3 | 66 | 30 |
| 16 | Ngidi | 16 | 169/3 | 50 | 24 |
| 17 | Curran | 2 | 171/4 | 48 | 18 |
| 18 | Thakur | 17 | 188/4 | 31 | 12 |
| 19 | Curran | 15 | 203/6 | 16 | 6 |
| 20 | Ngidi | 16 | 219/6 | won | 0 |
Two things stand out in that table. First, Mumbai scored only 14 runs in overs 10 to 12, and the asking rate rose to 15.6 an over. Second, from the 13th over onwards seven of the last eight overs went for 15 or more. The exception, Curran's two-run 17th over, should have been the end of the chase. It was not, because Pollard was still there.
Where 219 stood among IPL's biggest chases (as of May 2021)
| Chasing side | Target | Score | Opponent | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rajasthan Royals | 224 | 226/6 | Kings XI Punjab | 2020 |
| Mumbai Indians | 219 | 219/6 | Chennai Super Kings | 2021 |
| Rajasthan Royals | 215 | 217/7 | Deccan Chargers | 2008 |
| Delhi Daredevils | 209 | 214/3 | Gujarat Lions | 2017 |
On 1 May 2021, only Rahul Tewatia's night in Sharjah seven months earlier had produced a bigger successful IPL chase. The list has since been rewritten by the impact-player era, most dramatically by Punjab Kings chasing 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in 2024, but in 2021 Mumbai's 219 was close to the limit of what IPL teams had shown they could chase.
Legacy impact: what this means today
The template for the modern chase
In 2021, the accepted way to chase 219 was to bat deep and hope one innings came off. Mumbai's chase showed something more specific: with a hitter of Pollard's power at number five, a side could absorb a middle-overs stall of 14 runs in three overs and still win, because one batter could score 20 in an over against spin. The fours-and-sixes maths is stark. Pollard scored 72 of his 87 runs in boundaries.
The impact-player rule, introduced in 2023, gives teams an extra batter, so a chase like this is no longer a once-a-season event. In 2021 it still needed someone like Pollard.
The players, five seasons on
Most of the cast are still part of the IPL story, often on different sides. Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Trent Boult were all in Mumbai's 2026 squad, and so were two Chennai bowlers from that night, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar. Ruturaj Gaikwad, dismissed in the first over that evening, now leads Chennai, with MS Dhoni still in their squad. Ravindra Jadeja moved to Rajasthan Royals, Krunal Pandya is at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and Lungi Ngidi, who bowled the last over, is at Delhi Capitals. Rahul Chahar, who bowled four overs for 32 for Mumbai that night, is now a Chennai player.
Pollard played his entire IPL career for Mumbai, from 2010 until his retirement from the league in late 2022, and then joined their coaching staff. Rayudu, Moeen, Raina and du Plessis have all left the IPL as players.
What the scoreboard could not see
Ten overs into the chase, the scoreboard said Chennai: 81 for 3, 138 needed at 13.8 an over, Any honest win-probability model would have made Chennai heavy favourites at that moment. CricMind's Oracle would have done the same, because it rates teams and match states rather than the hidden variable of one hitter at the crease. That is why it publishes a confidence figure with every call on the predictions page and keeps a public list of the biggest upsets its pre-match numbers got wrong. Pollard's 87 not out is the kind of innings that list exists to record.
A rivalry that kept producing finishes
This match sits in a run of close games between the IPL's two most successful franchises. Two years earlier, Mumbai had beaten Chennai by one run in the 2019 final. Chennai answered later in 2021 by winning the title in Dubai, with du Plessis making 86 in the final against KKR, while Mumbai finished fifth and missed the playoffs. The night in Delhi did not win Mumbai a trophy. It is remembered anyway, because few IPL innings have changed a match as completely as this one.
Three takeaways
- One over can rewrite a chase. Jadeja's 13th over, 20 runs from three Pollard sixes, turned a stalled innings at 94 for 3 into a chase that Mumbai were winning. A 15-plus required rate is a warning sign, not a verdict, when a genuine hitter is at the crease.
- All-round impact decides close games. Pollard's two wickets in the 12th over held Chennai to 218, when 112 for 1 had pointed to something near 240. Without that over, his 87 not out would probably not have been enough.
- Death-over numbers mislead. Bumrah (1 for 56) and Ngidi (0 for 62) both conceded more than 55 runs in the same game. On a small ground with a fast outfield, the side that bowled worse at the death won, and only by two runs off the last ball.
FAQ
How many runs did Kieron Pollard score against CSK in 2021?
Kieron Pollard scored 87 not out from 34 balls, with six fours and eight sixes, against Chennai Super Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on 1 May 2021. He reached fifty in 17 balls and was named player of the match.
What was the target in the MI vs CSK match on 1 May 2021?
Chennai Super Kings made 218 for 4, so Mumbai Indians needed 219 to win. Mumbai reached 219 for 6 off the last ball of the 20th over and won by four wickets.
How many runs did Mumbai need in the last over?
Mumbai needed 16 runs from Lungi Ngidi's final over. Pollard faced all six balls and scored dot, four, four, dot, six and two, taking the winning runs off the last ball.
Was MI's 219 the highest successful chase in IPL history?
No, but it was the second highest at the time. Only Rajasthan Royals' 226 for 6 against Kings XI Punjab in Sharjah in 2020 was higher. Several bigger chases have followed since, including Punjab Kings' 262 against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024.
Who scored the most runs for Chennai in that match?
Ambati Rayudu top-scored for Chennai with 72 not out from 27 balls, reaching his fifty in 20 balls. Moeen Ali made 58 and Faf du Plessis 50.
Did Kieron Pollard take wickets in the same match?
Yes. Pollard bowled two overs for 12 runs and took two wickets in the 12th over, dismissing Faf du Plessis and Suresh Raina. Chennai slipped from 112 for 1 to 116 for 4.
What happened to IPL 2021 after this match?
The season was suspended on 4 May 2021, three days after this game, because of COVID-19 cases inside team bubbles. It resumed in the UAE in September, and Chennai Super Kings went on to win the title.