Krunal Pandya’s late blitzkrieg helped Mumbai Indians surge past Kings XI Punjab and keep their IPL campaign alive as they registered a six-wicket victory in Indore on Friday.
Chasing 175 to win, Mumbai started off well with Suryakumar Yadav scoring yet another half-century, but then the team slowed down a bit in the middle with Kings XI spinners doing a good job.
Suryakumar got his 4th half-century off the season and was finding boundaries at will, He hit three 6s and six 4s in his innings and looked comfortable in the middle.
However, Kings XI spinners strangulate the Mumbai batsmen in the middle, with boundaries not coming as freely as they wanted.
That left the team with 36 required off the final 3 overs and that’s when Krunal changed the game completely, with Mumbai going past the line with one over to spare. He ended unbeaten on 31 off just 12 balls. Rohit Sharma too played a great hand, ending unbeaten on 24 off just 15 as he played the role of a finisher for the team. Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan also chipped in, scoring 25 and 23 respectively.
For Kings XI, Ashwin bowled well but ended wicket-less, conceding 23 in his 4 overs. Mujeeb picked 2/37 in his 4 overs with his final over going for runs.
Earlier, it was a special effort by Jasprit Bumrah with the ball as Kings XI ended on 174/6 in their 20 overs. Bumrah ended with figures of 1/19 in his 4 overs, keeping in-form openers Chris Gayle and KL Rahul in check.
The openers weren’t given any room and were made to work hard for every run. Markande then removed Rahul off a delivery which wasn’t his best, but the Kings XI opener hit the short ball straight to Duminy in the deep.
Gayle scored yet another half-century but it was a subdued one by his standards as he scored the runs off 40 balls before Ben Cutting got the better off him. Yuvraj’s poor run with the bat continued as he was run out for run-a-ball 14.
Kings XI middle-order struggled to get going yet again and it took a late surge from Marcus Stoinis as he scored 22 of the last over to help the home side reach 174/6 in their 20 overs.