Credit: cricinfo
Mullanpur, Punjab, The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium witnessed a heart-stopping finish on Thursday as the Mumbai Indians snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against the spirited Punjab Kings in a nail-biting encounter by 9 runs.
Chasing a daunting 193-run target set by Mumbai, Punjab looked down and out at 77 for 6 in the 10th over. The top-order batsmen failed to face the sharp pace of MI bowlers. However, in the middle order, Shashank Singh (41 off 25 balls) and Asutosh Sharma (61 off 28 balls) pushed the team to the verge of victory. Bumrah and Coetze managed to send them to the pavilion at the crucial stage. After both settled batsmen left the crease, the rest collapsed in a blink.
Mumbai Batting blazed by Suryakumar Yadav:
After losing the toss, MI was asked to bat first. Despite wicketkeeper-batsmen Ishan Kishan (8) being dismissed by Kagiso Rabada in the third over, Rohit Sharma (36 off 25) stood still in the crease and tried to build the innings. On the other hand, Suryakumar Yadav, who was out for duck in the previous match, blazed with a stunning 78 runs out of 53. Alongside, Tilak Varma, who came to the crease after Rohit’s departure, supported Surya with a needful 34 runs off 18 balls. As a result of these innings, Mumbai posted a huge 192-run score on the board for 7 wickets in 20 overs.
Asutosh created the winning sparkles with his outstanding Half-ton:
While chasing a 193-run target, the Punjab Kings batting order was completely dismantled by the Mumbai bowlers until the 10th over. The top six batsmen, along with the present captain, Sam Curran (6), Prabhsimran Singh (0), Rilee Rossouw (1), Liam Livingstone (1), Harpreet Singh (13) and Jitesh Sharma (9), were left to the pavilion without giving a fight. But, once again, Shashank Singh (41) showed some courage to retaliate the MI’s bowling attack. In the 12th over, Bumrah showed his magic again and sent him out to the dug-out.
After Shashank Singh, Asutosh Sharma took on the responsibility of leading the team to victory. He started a counterattack against Mi’s bowling department. He started smashing outstanding boundaries all over the stadium. Sixes and fours started raining from his bat. While witnessing his destruction, MI players also started thinking about losing the match. Asutosh created the winning sparkles in Punjab camp with his outstanding half-ton. But, in the 18th over, Coentzee turned the tables by sending Asutosh with a brilliant delivery. When Asutosh left the crease, Punjab was 25 runs short of the win. But Harpreet Brar (21) and Kagiso Rabada (8) failed to complete the rest.
As a result, Mumbai clinched a 9-run win in close nail-biting combat. With this, MI registered their third victory of the season out of their seven matches. On the other hand, Punjab descended to the 9th position in the IPL 2024 points table with this home ground loss.
