Punjab Kings win a thriller
Mumbai Indians’ winless run continues as five-time champions lose the encounter by 12 runs
KOLKATA: Jaydev Unadkat at No 7, Murugan Ashwin at 8, Jasprit Bumrah at 9 followed by Basil Thampi and Tymal Mills. This is perhaps one of the longer lower orders in this IPL. The brief for Mumbai Indians thus couldn’t have been more lucid—chase 198, preferably with the top six. They failed, losing wickets at crucial intervals to hand Punjab Kings a 12-run victory and stay winless.
The chase could have been over after the ninth over itself. Rahul Chahar had just conceded his costliest IPL over ever, leaking 29 runs as Dewald Brevis walloped him for four consecutive sixes over long on. If that battering wasn’t enough,
Tilak Varma added 19 runs in the next seven balls to bring Mumbai Indians almost on par with the required rate. Some sensible batting from thereon could have kept MI comfortably in the game but the inexperience started showing.
After being dropped at third man, Brevis went through with a pull the next ball, only to find Arshdeep Singh at backward square-leg. Varma fell quickly too, setting off for a non-existent run and sent back by Suryakumar Yadav.
Kieron Pollard’s run-out was also his own doing as he literally walked the first run before scampering for a second. Yadav was ready to switch gears though. With two sliced sixes off Vaibhav Arora, he reduced the equation to 33 off 18 but Singh brought Punjab Kings back into the game with a five-run 18th over. Under pressure, Yadav flicked Kagiso Rabada for a firstball four but mistimed the next heave two balls later, leaving the lower-order too tall an ask.
Where MI first erred was in not setting the tone early like Punjab Kings openers Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan. With a thumping square cut past point off the first ball of the innings, Agarwal showed he was not going to hang around. Next over, Dhawan shimmied down the pitch to swat Jaydev Unadkat over mid-off for a flat six. Bumrah had an equally forgettable start, conceding four leg byes and two wides before being driven through point by Agarwal for four.
Once Agarwal holed out to long-off, Dhawan started playing more shots though Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone fell quickly. Be it a ramp shot off Bumrah for four, a lapped four just wide of short fine-leg or an upper-cut that barely cleared short third man,
Dhawan was at his innovative best playing behind the wicket. Amid all this, Ishan Kishan dropped a very difficult catch but MI could feel aggrieved after a leg-before appeal that was initially thought to be a massive inside-edge off Dhawan’s bat turned out to be pad-first from a side-on angle. More grief was coming MI’s way as Jitesh Sharma played a 15-ball 30-run cameo that was rounded off nicely by Shahrukh Khan’s sixball 15.
On 128/2 in 14 overs, PBKS were set for a rather big score but Bumrah conceded just 12 in his last two overs to almost compensate for the 23-run hiding meted out to Unadkat in the 18th over. Still, Punjab Kings ended on a formidable 198/5. Having scored 90 in the first nine overs, 42 in the next six and 66 in the last five, PBKS threw down the gauntlet to MI. Barely past the fourth over though, MI lost Kishan and Rohit Sharma in the space of five balls. Despite a few promising moments, the chase essentially started to crumble from that point.