CHENNAI: Ashutosh Sharma's sensational 28-ball 61 went in vain as Mumbai Indians beat Punjab Kings by nine runs at the Mullanpur Stadium on Thursday. For MI, Jasprit Bumrah was the star with the ball, taking 3/21. With the victory, MI moved to seventh place (6 points) in the table.
Chasing an above par target, Punjab were in for a shock. First, Ishan Kishan took a blinder down the leg side to remove Prabhsimran Singh, and then came the Jasprit Bumrah special. The Mumbai pacer delivered his trademark yorker, sending the off-stump cartwheeling to remove Rile Russow. In the same over, he also dismissed Sam Curran — another down the leg catch — and Kings were three down. Coetzee only added insult to injury as he outwitted Liam Livingstone with a fast bouncer. By the time the powerplay ended, Kings were down to 40/4.
From thereon, it all went downhill for Punjab. Shreyas Gopal got rid of Harpreet Singh, and Akash Madwal trapped Jitesh Sharma on the pads. Once again, it was down to Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma to play the rescue act. They smashed 34 runs over the next 14 balls, and it seemed like Kings were getting back on track. Pandya brought back Bumrah and he delivered with the wicket of Shashank (41 from 25 balls).
However, Ashutosh kept the fight going. He, along with Harpreet Brar, collected 13 runs off Coetzee. But it was the Madhwal over that became the turning point. Ashutosh hit two sixes, including one off a no ball before Brar finished the over with another. 24 runs came off that over, reducing the required run rate to 7. At this point, it was the Kings' match to lose. All they had to do was play out Bumrah and that is exactly what they did.
Three runs came off Bumrah over, and they needed 25 off 18 balls. When Coetzee came back for his final over, Ashutosh fell for a splendid 61 from 28 balls, trying to hit the South African over deep midwicket. From there, Kings crumbled to 183 all out in 19.1 overs, falling short by nine runs.
Earlier, having been put into bat by Sam Curran, Mumbai lost Ishan Kishan early. But Rohit Sharma picked up boundaries off Liam Livingstone and Arshdeep Singh. SKY hit Kagiso Rabada for consecutive boundaries. Rohit, meanwhile, pulled Singh into the stands and followed it up with another hit down the ground off Curran, taking MI to 54/1 in six overs.
From thereon, SKY had the most of the strike as he reached his fifty in 34 balls. On the other hand, the former MI captain was outdone by Curran for 36 runs from 25 balls.
Punjab sneaked in two boundary-less overs, but Tilak Varma and SKY made it up with four boundaries in the Arshdeep over. Although Surya got out to Curran for 78 from 53 balls, skipper Hardik Pandya fell for ten runs from five balls, Tim David smashed Curran for two fours and a six in the penultimate over. His 14 off seven balls, along with Varma's 18-ball 34, proved valuable in MI getting to 192/7.