Mumbai: Mumbai Indians clinched a thriller against Kings XI Punjab as they won the match by a slender margin of four runs at Wankhade Stadium on Monday. Kings XI Punjab gave Mumbai Indians a tough time as there were some a brilliant performance from David Miller and Praveen Kumar which kept them in hunt all the time. Miller scored 56 off 35 balls and Kumar scored 24 off 15 balls.
But it was some brilliant performance from spin twins of Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan
Ojha, who picked up five wickets amongst them, that brought MI back into the game. Some brilliant fielding effort from Keiron Pollard lifted the spirits in MI when he plucked the catch of Shaun Marsh from nowhere and Sachin Tendulkar also contributed with his fielding efforts as he held onto the catch of Miller and Praveen Kumar.
Earlier, it was Rohit Sharma who smacked the ball all over the park and got 79 runs in just 39 balls which was studded with six fours and six sixes. His innings gave the solid foundation to this high-voltage drama between two teams as MI put up an impossible score of 174 runs on the board.
Chasing the stiff target of 175 runs was never going to be easy especially against the likes of Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson. Mandeep Singh departed in the second over of the innings after making contribution of nine runs and was followed by Manan Vohra in the next over who added just one run to the total.
But David Hussey started shifting the gears as he kept dealing in boundaries to accelerate the innings with Shaun Marsh. But it was Ojha who spoiled the party for both the batsmen as he got both of them out in his successive overs to put the brakes on KXIP by reducing them to 4/76 in 8.4 overs.
David Miller came into the middle and was in search of the partner who could bat till the end with him. He kept hitting those big sixes to keep the pressure on fielding side. But Harbhajan Singh kept coming up with his beauties to dismiss Gurkeerat Singh, Manpreet Gony and Azhar Mahmood to give Mumbai an upper-hand in this contest.
Piyush Chawla came into bat and contributed 12 runs to his team before he was dismissed by Johnson. But Miller and Kumar didn’t lose hope and kept on dealing in boundaries to reduce the difference to as low as possible. Miller reached his fifty in just 32 balls with the big six off the last ball of 17th over.
With 37 runs needed in last three overs, Punjab lost the big wicket of Miller who departed after scoring 56 runs which again tilted the balance in Mumbai’s favour. Praveen Kumar kept his nerves and took this match to the last ball. With five runs needed of final ball; Praveen mistimed the ball and Tendulkar did no mistake in holding onto that.
Earlier, it was Mumbai Indians who had a slow start as they added just 16 runs in four overs and they lost the big wicket of Sachin Tendulkar. But Dinesh Karthik steeped up the gas and tried increasing the scoring rate by getting those odd boundaries. He departed after scoring 25 off 19 balls. With some brilliant bowling from Parwinder Awana and Praveen Kumar, Punjab restricted MI as they allowed them to score just 59 runs till the half-way mark.
Rohit Sharma and Dwayne Smith shifted their gears and started smacking boundaries which helped Mumbai reach 80 runs in just 12 overs. But they lost the wicket of Smith in the13th over which brought Pollard in the centre who started off his innings with a huge six.
Mumbai scored 27 runs in the last over to set a stiff target of 175.
By ISN