MULLANPUR (Punjab), Apr 18 : On the 16th anniversary of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the tournament witnessed one of the most dramatic scripts that the crash, bang, wallop of T20 cricket can serve as Mumbai Indians pipped Punjab Kings by nine runs at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium here on Thursday.
The Punjab Kings led by Sam Curran had won the toss and opted to bowl first against Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians at the Mullanpur Stadium in Mohali where the home side made some changes to their starting 11 as they brought in the South African opener, Rilee Roussow in for Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh has taken the top spot in place of Atharva Taide.
Kagiso Rabada delivered with a wicket in his first delivery as Ishan Kishan looked to slice away the short and wide delivery but found the fielder at backward point who took the catch which even put a smile on both men’s faces.
Suryakumar Yadav came out at number three and looked to get going quickly as he found consecutive boundaries off the over from Rabada. He kept finding the boundaries at regular intervals as he raced past yet another half-century in the 11th over.
Rohit Sharma who is playing his 250th IPL match looked in fine touch as he had a good start with the bat but was unable to capitalise on it as he was dismissed by the PBKS skipper Curran who caught him off-guard with the slower delivery.
Curran was able to deliver yet another big wicket as he got the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav out in the 17th over as the batter found the fielder at the cover-point region who took the catch.
Tilak Verma started steadily but found his groove while the skipper Hardik Pandya was able to get going straight away but was dismissed prematurely as his struggles continued as Harshal Patel got the wicket.
Wickets kept falling at regular intervals as MI settled with a target of 193 runs for PBKS to chase down in the second innings.
Gerald Coetzee was handed the new ball while Sam Curran came out to open the batting along with Prabhsimran Singh. Curran started with a fine boundary to the covers while Prabhsimran was dismissed for a first-ball duck.
But all hell broke loose as Jasprit Bumrah delivered two wickets in his first over. He got rid of Rilee Roussow with a crushing yorker which went and crashed onto the stumps followed by the wicket of Sam Curran who nicked it to the keeper on the leg-side.
Coetzee was among the wickets once again as he got the wicket of Liam Livingstone who misjudged the length of the delivery and nicked the toe end of the bat which fell right onto the bowler’s hands.
Similarly, Harpreet Bhatia who was brought in as the impact sub, sent one straight onto the leg-spinner, Shreyas Gopal for another caught and bowled.
It would not have been a surprise if most sides had written off PBKS following their disastrous start with the bat. But Shashank Singh got the ball rolling as he took charge coming in the powerplay. However, he was unable to stick around as he was dismissed by Bumrah yet again finishing his innings with 41 in 25 balls.
But the game did not end there. Ashutosh Sharma who has impressed with PBKS continued to showcase his six-hitting abilities as he snatched the game with an inspiring knock of 61 in 28 balls through the middle and latter stages of the innings.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians: 192 for 7 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 78; Harshal Patel 3/31).
Punjab Kings: 183 all out in 19.1 overs (Ashutosh Sharma 61, Shashank Singh 41; Jasprit Bumrah 3/21, Gerald Coetzee 3/32).
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