Mumbai Indians headed for elimination after setting themselves up for their maiden win, only their fifth consecutive defeat as Punjab Kings won a high-scoring IPL thriller by 12 runs on Wednesday. The chase of 199 seemed doable when Kishore Devald Brevis (49 off 25 balls) and NT Tilak Verma (36 off 20 balls) were at the crease but the Punjab bowlers took MI for nine wickets at the end of 20 overs. But stopped at 186. , Odeon Smith (4/30 in 4 overs) redeemed himself after a frightening innings in the last two balls against Gujarat Titans as he took two wickets in the final over for Punjab.
For Mumbai, eight wins in nine matches with such a bowling attack seem impossible.
However, if there was one positive, it was Brevis’ batting. It took eight balls to go for Brevis as he dismissed a cover drive and Arshdeep Singh on a straight drive. A six off Smith’s delivery calmed his nerves before India international Rahul Chahar decided to wreak havoc on his vein.
A boundary was followed by four big sixes as Chahar first cut the length and then one long jump after another as his bearings got deposited in the stand.
Baby AB’s transition from boy to man happened with that 29-run over, which shows MI invested 10 years.
He was eventually dismissed one less than his maiden IPL half-century, but not before leaving everyone craving for more.
At the other end was Tilak, who had already made an impression, showing great sportsmanship before doing the heavy lifting off Brevis before he hit some amazing sixes including an audacious slash over Smith.
The duo resumed the match adding 84 runs in 6.5 overs before their successive dismissals brought Punjab back again as luck swings like a pendulum.
Suryakumar Yadav (43 off 30 balls) was not in the best form and Kieron Pollard (10, 11 balls) went from bad to worse.
In the end, it was Surya who took a six off Vaibhav Arora with extra cover in his hands and then opened the face for a six at backward point as 33 were needed from the last three overs.
However, it was Kagiso Rabada who dismissed Surya in the 19th over, with Smith caught in the deep with not much resistance left from MI.
Earlier, skipper Mayank Agarwal and veteran Shikhar Dhawan scored their first half-centuries of the season as Punjab Kings started off well with the openers to post a challenging 198 for five.
Punjab Kings have deployed the “attack is the best form of defense” philosophy during this edition of the league and there has been no change in policy as they added 97 in less than 10 overs to provide a perfect launchpad but Jasprit Talent from Bumrah (1/28 inch, 4 overs) kept the score below 200.
Bumrah’s toe-crusher, which delivered a yorker to the dangerous Liam Livingstone, helped MI keep things under control by scoring 99 runs in the last 10 overs.
Agarwal, who had not been scoring brilliant runs before this game, played his customary square-of-the-wicket shots off-side and into the spinners’ straight loft, scoring 52 off 32 balls.
Dhawan took his time while playing the second fiddle but still kept the pace and allowed Agarwal to go full hog during his stand. But after that he picked up the pace before being dismissed for 70 in 50 balls.
It was Mumbai’s home bowlers like Basil Thampi (2/47 in 4 overs) and Murugan Ashwin (1/3 in 4 overs), who were not measuring up match after match but skipper Rohit Sharma is helpless due to lack of options.
Despite knowing Agarwal’s tendency to place and smash through the off-side, he was fed length balls outside off-stump by Thampi and Tymal Mills. When he bowled short, the pace had a good effect.
In Ashwin’s case, the PBKS captain would step down to lift him straight, but he found his man when Agarwal went too high for a shot.
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Dhawan went on to his 45th IPL half-ton, but the shot that showed his authority was a disdainful slog sweep off Thampi’s 137-click delivery.
Thampi took his revenge, rookie Jitesh Sharma (30 not out from 15 balls) in the 18th over scored 23 runs off Jaydev Unadkat (44 runs in 4 overs) and caught Dhawan in the deep to find the momentum that slipped after one. Went. some dismissal.
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