Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to field first in a pitch which looked good for batting. It did not take much for the Punjab Openers to get off the mark as Virender Sehwag and Manan Vohra seized the early initiative by going after the bowlers. Sehwag was particularly dangerous as he smacked two sixes in his short stay at the crease before getting run-out in an unfortunate manner when the score was 23.
Shaun Marsh got his first opportunity of the tournament and did not waste any time in trying to impress one and all by smashing it the ball to all parts of the ground in his quickfire 30 off just 17 balls. Vohra on the other hand continued to play his shots as Kings XI Punjab were cruising at one stage when the score was 87 off little over 9 overs.
As soon as Marsh got out the innings lost its momentum as Punjab soon found themselves in a spot of bother and from 87 for 1 they had slumped to 93 for 4. The Maxwell magic did not work as he found the bowler on the way by giving him a simple caught and bowled chance and it was left to Bailey to bail his his team out of trouble.
The Mumbai bowlers got their act together and kept the pressure on by picking up wickets at regular intervals which made the job even more difficult for Punjab and at the end of their allotted 20 overs they could only manage to score 156 runs, thanks to their skipper George Bailey who top-scored for Punjab. Bailey’s 39 came at a stage when Punjab were losing way and it helped them to get to a competitive total.
The pressure was not that much on Mumbai Indians as the target was not very big but the team still had to get off to a good start in order to take the pressure off the middle-order and Lendl Simmons and Michael Hussey did exactly that for them. Hussey got out for 6 but by then Mumbai had already crossed 60 and were looking good to finish the match well before 20 overs. Simmons continued to impress everyone as he took the Punjab attack to the cleaners and Ambati Rayadu and Rohit Sharma gave him good support from the other end.
Simmons became the first player in this years’ IPL to score a century as he remained unbeaten on 100 while Kieron Pollard finished it off in style by hitting Shivam Sharma for a six right over long on. Akshar Patel came up with the best figures for Punjab by picking up a wicket and giving away only 27 runs.
Mumbai Indians have won few and far in between but this win will definitely give them a lot of confidence as it came against the best side of the tournament nad will help them to rebuild for next year as their campaign is virtually over in this years’ IPL.
photo:iplt20.com
