Another impressive bowling performance from Jasprit Bumrah (3 for 21) enabled the visitors to hold their nerves and clinch victory, thereby ensuring Suryakumar Yadav’s excellent 78 off 53 didn’t go in vain. Punjab Kings fell on the wrong side of a third straight final-over thriller at their home ground in Mullanpur with Mumbai Indians edging home to a nine-run win for their third victory of the season to keep pace with the other playoffs chasers. Jasprit Bumrah also holds the purple cap as of now .
The visitors appeared to be cruising to victory for large portions of the game before a sensational knock from Ashutosh Sharma (61 off 28) rocked their boat sidewards but Jasprit Bumrah who is the only ominous looking bowler from MI side showed why he is considered as a world class bowler. The economy of bowlers other than Jasprit Bumrah was forgettable in this thrilling match.
Pitch and Toss.
If we go to the Western terrace or the sunset 70 meters over there, 63 to the Eastern side and down town is 72, the other tricky thing is behind the wicket it is just 58 and 56 meters, players are going to be searching and thinking about that. I like what I see. It has got a bit of green about it,” informs Danny Morrison. “It is a difficult for the bowlers you’d think because of the pocket size of the boundaries, but having said that, this ground is definitely pleasing for a bowler.
Yes, the spinners have done well but the seamers especially in the last game, hit the hard length and troubled the batters. The seam bowlers have done really well and that’s nice but not for the batters,” suggests Anjum Chopra. “The average first innings score is 168,” adds Danny. “That is a good score but you need more on the board. It is a good surface but the seam bowlers will be a little tempted seeing the grass,”
Punjab Kings skipper Sam Curran won the toss and chose to field making one change bringing in Rilee Russow for out of form Jonny Bairstow.
Mumbai Indians batting first did not make any change to their squad.
A steady Suryakumar Yadav steadies MI in the powerplay
This was not a belter of a wicket, especially in the first innings, is ascertained by the fact that out of Suryakumar Yadav’s 17 scores of 75 or more in T20 cricket, this knock was the only one scored at a strike-rate under 160. But he was typically quick off the blocks after MI were put into bat, hitting Kagiso Rabada for two fours after coming out to play in the third over of the game. MI got to 54/1 at the end of the powerplay with Suryakumar reaching 22 off 15 balls.
At the halfway point of the innings, he was one short of a half-century having played three of his signature shots in the process: a whip behind the wicket for six off Rabada, a swept-four off Harpreet Brar that beat short-fine leg and deep square leg and an inside-out six over extra cover off Liam Livingstone. At the other end, after making a fast start, Rohit Sharma was starved off strike and made only 29 off his 20 balls at the 10-over mark.
Before this game, Suryakumar Yadav had made two ducks and two half-centuries in his four innings this season. On Thursday, he walked in at No. 3 after Ishan Kishan fell to Rabada in the third over, and got off the mark with consecutive fours off the same bowler. It wasn’t a duck, so he inevitably got to the 50 mark.
Suryakumar then used his wrists to put away Harshal Patel for another boundary in the fifth, and followed it up with a cut over the off side off Sam Curran in the sixth. Along with Rohit Sharma, he helped Mumbai to 54 for 1 in the powerplay.
PBKS’ admirable comeback in the middle overs pegs MI back.
Sam Curran, continuing to lead in Shikhar Dhawan’s absence, was proactive with his bowling changes and did not allow the MI batters to line up any one member of his attack. The PBKS skipper dismissed Rohit, who faced only 13 balls in the seven overs leading into the 12th, by getting the India captain to hit to point after a 25-ball 36.
Curran, Rabada and Harpreet Brar also bowled three boundary-less overs before Tilak Varma ended a 22-ball drought with back-to-back boundaries off Arshdeep Singh. Suryakumar added a four of his own to make it a 15-run over and inject momentum back into the innings.
Together, they would put on 81 in 57 balls, with Rohit contributing only 26 to the stand. Suryakumar dominated spinners Harpreet and Livingstone after the powerplay, but Rohit could not find the same fluency having been starved of strike for most of the stand. He fell in the 12th over for 35 when he tried to hit Curran over the covers but found the point fielder instead.
By the time Rohit was gone, Suryakumar had already reached his fifty in 34 balls. His innings was unusually sluggish by his standards, but the two-paced surface and the change-up deliveries bowled by Harshal and Arshdeep Singh forced false strokes too.
MI’s finishing kick as Tilak Verma’s cameo propels MI to 192 for 7.
MI scored 62 runs off the final five overs against an older ball that didn’t always come on at an expected pace off the wicket. Eighteen of those 62 runs came in Rabada’s fourth over – the 16th of the innings – denting the South African’s figures after he had given away just 25 from his first three. In that over, Suryakumar overturned an LBW decision against him and then proceeded to hit the pacer for a four over extra cover before flicking a full-toss over fine-leg for six. Tilak rounded that over with a pulled six over mid-wicket.
Once Curran dismissed Suryakumar in the 17th over, Tilak took over the baton to give the team a finishing kick. He finished unbeaten on an 18-ball 34 while Tim David added 14 off 7 balls including two fours and a six off Curran’s final over. Harshal Patel produced an impressive final over, dismissing David and Romario Shepherd with slower into-the-wicket balls. Only eight runs came from that over and even though MI fell short of the 200-mark, the 192 they got was more than any team had managed at Mullanpur and it showed.
It needed Tilak Varma’s take-down of Arshdeep in the 15th over for Suryakumar to also break free in his familiar, trademark fashion, and he did that by bashing Rabada for four, six and six in the 16th after successfully reviewing an lbw decision earlier in the over.
That 18-run Rabada over took Mumbai to 148 for 2 in 16 overs, and with big hitters to come, a score of over 200 seemed to be on. But Curran removed Suryakumar for a 53-ball 78 – only the second time he had faced 50-plus balls in an IPL innings – and Mumbai could not get a lot out of Hardik or Tim David. Harshal bowled a seven-run 20th over, which included three wickets, to keep Mumbai down to under 200.
After the innings finished on 192 for 7, the highest first-innings IPL total in Mullanpur, Suryakumar told the broadcasters he felt the score was “way above par,” and his prophecy came true, but not without Mumbai surviving a massive scare.
Jasprit Bumrah, Coetzee bowl thunderbolts to reduce PBKS to 14 for 4.
Kings were on the mat early in their chase of 193 when Coetzee had Prabhsimran Singh caught behind down the leg side in the first over. At the other end, Jasprit Bumrah took the new ball and struck right away, removing franchise debutant Rilee Rossouw for a duck and the new opener Sam Curran for 6.
Liam Livingstone, batting at No. 4, then lasted two balls when his attempted pull off a 150kph Coetzee delivery was sliced back to the bowler. A score of 14 for 4 soon became 49 for 5 when Harpreet Singh Bhatia was caught by leg spinner Shreyas Gopal, and then became 77 for 6 when Jitesh Sharma was lbw for nine by Madhwal.
PBKS made the decision to drop the under-performing Jonny Bairstow and bring in big-money recruit Rilee Rossouw into their XI. It was a move that didn’t work as Jasprit Bumrah quickly set the cat among the pigeons in the second innings. Curran opted to bring himself up to open the order but saw his partner, Prabhsimran Singh, fall attempting a pull off Gerald Coetzee but only managed to glove the ball to the ‘keeper.
That brought Rossouw to the middle and he was a recipient of an inswinging yorker from Jasprit Bumrah that laid waste to his stumps. Jasprit Bumrah added another wicket, via DRS, when he had the PBKS skipper tickle a leg-stump ball to the ‘keeper. PBKS lost a fourth wicket in the 13th ball of the innings when Liam Livingstone’s attempted pull to a pacy delivery from Coetzee popped right back to the bowler. At the end of six overs, PBKS were 40/4 and effectively out of the contest.
The near miracle as the Ashutosh Sharma blitz makes MI panic
All hope seemed lost when Ashutosh joined Shashank Singh in the 10th over with the scoreboard reading 77/6. The pair added 34 runs in 3.5 overs but even so, Mumbai Indians seemed one wicket away from sealing the deal. Bumrah, brought back for one of his overs in the middle, struck with a wicked slower ball first up that Shashank was too early into and lofted a simple catch to mid-wicket. Ashutosh, though, wasn’t done and made his intentions clear with an audacious sweep off an attempted Jasprit Bumrah yorker for a six.
Ashutosh hit seven sixes in all, five of them in the region between deep square leg and fine-leg, effortlessly maneuvering balls directed towards his body in that quadrant of the field. It forced MI’s bowlers into panic mode as they packed their legside but a full toss still allowed Ashutosh to put the ball away.
With five overs to go, Punjab needed 52 to win and then the 16th over sent down by Akash Madhwal turned the game on its head. His round the wicket angle to Ashutosh didn’t work as the batter made room and lofted a six over long off.
That it was a no-ball allowed Ashutosh to take another risk off the ensuing free-hit and this time he pulled out the reverse-scoop over third man for another six. The over ended with Harpreet Brar pumping another six straight down the ground to make it a 24-run over. That brought the equation down to a very gettable 28 off 24.
By the time Ashutosh walked in, Shashank had already kept Kings’ score moving with the occasional boundary. Shashank pumped three sixes and two fours to make 41 in 25 balls from No. 6, but it was only when Ashutosh joined him that runs flowed from both ends.
Ashutosh hammered Madhwal for a six over fine leg in the tenth over and then took Romario Shepherd for four and six in the 11th. He clubbed Hardik Pandya for a six in the 12th too, and even after Bumrah had dismissed Shashank in the 13th, he swept the fast bowler for an audacious six in the same over. Ashutosh and Harpreet Brar then took Coetzee for a 13-run 15th over as they made 65 runs in that five-over period.
But it was the 16th over that took Kings ahead in the game for the first time in the chase. Madhwal missed his lengths and Ashutosh punished him with consecutive sixes. Harpreet smacked another six to bring the equation down to 28 off four overs. The required run-rate of only seven gave Ashutosh and Harpreet the breathing room to see out Bumrah’s final over for only three runs, which ended with Kings needing a manageable 25 off 18.
The tense finish as MI managed a lucky escape to 2 points by 9 runs.
MI’s chances distilled down to what Jasprit Bumrah could do in his final over. PBKS didn’t need to take any risks against him and casually got away by taking just three runs off the master bowler. Hardik Pandya, now front-loading his best bowlers, then bowled Coetzee. The South African struck the biggest blow of the night when he had Ashutosh hitting to the deep mid-wicket fielder towards the longer side of the ground.
Ashutosh’s dismissal for a 28-ball 61 turned the pendulum once more in MI’s direction as Coetzee’s over produced just two runs. Hardik brought himself on to bowl the 19th over and gave away just four runs from his first four balls and added the wicket off Brar, but then No.11 Kagiso Rabada walked out and pulled the first ball for six to give PBKS 12 to chase off the final over.
Unfortunately for PBKS, Rabada’s attempts to run two at the start of the final over turned fateful as an accurate throw from the deep caught him short and left PBKS on the wrong side of yet another close game.
Coetzee’s uncanny habit of breaking partnerships came through again, and he had Ashutosh pulling to deep midwicket at the start of the 18th over. Harpreet was then dismissed by Hardik in the 19th over. Rabada, the No. 11, struck a six off Hardik’s last ball to make it 13 required off seven balls. A single off the last ball of that over, and a wide off the first ball of the final over, bowled by Akash Madhwal, brought it down to 11 off six.
However, he was run out in pursuit of a second run next ball, and Mumbai could celebrate a great escape. With three overs to go, Kings needed only 25 runs more. However, Ashutosh fell at the start of the 18th over, and Mumbai never let that advantage go. Kings suffered their fourth final-over defeat of the season, and their fifth loss in all, as Mumbai climbed from ninth to seventh on the table.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Sam Curran the loosing skipper said : Another close one, I think this team likes a close one, but unfortunately another loss. Another incredible knock from the young guy (on Ashutosh), but another close loss. It’s very tough, you want to lose close games rather then getting absolutely thumped, but we’ve lost a lot of wickets at the start, the way the younger guys have taken the team so close is heartening (on Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma).
They have incredible confidence, you see a guy like Ashutosh having the confidence to play the sweeps and the big hits against pacers, it’s so great to watch them in action. It’s disheartening to lose close games, but there are a lot of positives in this team. We still have the belief in us, we believe we can turn this around, the sun will come up tomorrow and we will hopefully get on a winning run.
Hardik Pandya the winning skipper said : Very good game of cricket. Everyone’s nerve got tested. We did speak about before the game that the character will be checked in this game. Naturally you think you’re ahead in the game. But we knew IPL has a tendency to produce these games. Unbelievable – coming in and playing like that (Ashutosh’s knock).
Almost every ball hitting the middle. Happy for him and chuffed for his future. We did speak in the timeout that it doesn’t matter how good we look. We’ll keep scrapping in this game. We were quite soft in certain overs. Nevertheless, a win is a win.
Jasprit Bumrah Player of the match for his hostile spell of 3 wickets said : This was a close game. Much closer than what we thought it would go. Of course you want to make an impact when the ball does something. In this format the ball swings two overs. When I want to bowl more, I play Test cricket. That fulfills my desires.
This format is a little difficult for bowlers, with time restrictions and impact player rules. Batting lineup becomes deeper and deeper. But that’s not in your control. I do relay the message to the bowlers whenever I can. But you also don’t want to deliver too many messages in the heat of the moment.
Massive relief for MI who almost lost the plot in the face of a stunning late assault led by Ashutosh Sharma. At 77/6, having lost most of their batting, PBKS seemed dead and buried in the run-chase. But a sensational 28-ball 61 from Ashutosh brought them back out of nowhere. He played some helicopter pulls, swept Bumrah for a six, took Madhwal to the cleaners and left MI gasping for a while.
But he holed out in the deep when the hosts were just 25 away from the target, and the lower-order couldn’t get them over the line. Jasprit Bumrah stood out again for MI, taking wickets with the new ball and then coming back to break a dangerous partnership by getting rid of Shashank Singh. Jasprit Bumrah gave absolutely nothing away even when the rest were disappearing to all parts and put on a show again.
Two crucial points for MI on the road to lift them up in the table. What a game though. Out of nowhere Ashutosh produced that blinder and almost pulled off a heist. It wasn’t to be, and Punjab Kings remain stuck close to the bottom as Jasprit Bumrah rocked them at the start. Punjab Kings will host the Gujarat Titans on Sunday in their last game of the season at Mullanpur. Mumbai Indians have the weekend off before they head to Jaipur and take on the table-toppers Rajasthan Royals on Monday.