As Mumbai defeats Punjab by nine runs, Bumrah excels
At the Mullanpur Stadium on Thursday, the Mumbai Indians defeated the Punjab Kings by nine runs despite Ashutosh Sharma’s incredible 28-ball 61. Jasprit Bumrah stole the show with the ball for MI, taking 3/21. MI’s win put them up to seventh position (6 points) in the standings.
Pursuing a higher than average goal, Punjab was about to be shocked. Ishan Kishan first removed Prabhsimran Singh with a blinder down the leg side, and then came the Jasprit Bumrah special. To dismiss Rile Russow, the Mumbai pacer unleashed his signature yorker, sending the off-stump cartwheeling. He also removed Sam Curran, another down the leg catch, in the same over, leaving Kings three down. Coetzee’s quick bouncer proved to be an extra advantage as he managed to outsmart Liam Livingstone. When the powerplay came to a close, Kings had dropped to 40/4.
For Punjab, everything declined after that. Harpreet Singh was eliminated by Shreyas Gopal, while Jitesh Sharma was caught on the pads by Akash Madwal. Once again, it was up to Ashutosh Sharma and Shashank Singh to come to the rescue. After scoring 34 runs in the following 14 deliveries, it seemed as if Kings were returning to form. Bumrah was reinstated by Pandya, and he promptly removed Shashank (41 off 25 balls).
But Ashutosh continued the struggle. He scored thirteen runs off Coetzee alongside Harpreet Brar. However, the Madhwal dispute turned out to be the pivotal event. Brar smashed another six to end the over after Ashutosh had already hit two, one off a no-ball. That over saw 24 runs come off it, bringing the needed run rate down to 7. It was the Kings’ contest to lose at this point. They just needed to act out Bumrah, and they did just that.
They needed 25 from 18 balls after Bumrah’s over yielded three runs. Ashutosh attempted to knock the South African over deep midwicket, but fell for a magnificent 61 from 28 balls when Coetzee returned for his last over. After that, Kings collapsed to an all-out score of 183 in 19.1 overs, losing by nine runs.
Earlier, Mumbai lost Ishan Kishan early after Sam Curran sent them in to bat. However, Rohit Sharma overcame Arshdeep Singh and Liam Livingstone. Kagiso Rabada was struck by SKY for consecutive boundaries. Meanwhile, Rohit forced Singh into the stands and then struck Curran for a four-wicked blow, bringing MI to 54/1 in only six overs.
After then, SKY got the better of the strike, reaching his fifty in thirty-four balls. Curran, however, outscored the former MI captain with 36 runs off of 25 balls.
Punjab managed to slip in two overs without a boundary, but in the Arshdeep over, Tilak Varma and SKY made up for it with four boundaries. Tim David hit Curran for two fours and a six in the last over, despite Surya being out for 78 from 53 balls and captain Hardik Pandya falling for 10 runs from five balls. His 14 off seven balls and Varma’s 34 off eighteen balls were crucial in helping MI reach 192/7.
