Indore, May 5: Mumbai Indians (MI) on Friday defeated Kings XI Punjab by 6 wickets at the Holkar Cricket Stadium and lifted from the floor of the VIVO IPL 2018 standings. After opting to bowl and restricting the hosts KXIP to 174-6, MI chased down the runs in 19 overs riding on the back of a well-constructed half-century from Suryakumar Yadav and middle-order blitzes from captain Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya.
Chasing 175, MI were cautious at the start – crawling to 39-1 in the first six overs. Suryakumar Yadav feasted on one bowler Ankit Rajpoot but played out the others respectfully as he scored 31 runs from 18 balls off Rajpoot, and made 26 from 24 balls against the rest. After Yadav was dismissed for 57 in the twelfth over, Hardik Pandya scored 23 runs while skipper Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya remained not out with the score of 24 and 31 respectively.
Earlier in the evening, put in to bat, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul stitched together their 5th 50-plus partnership of the season and gave KXIP a platform from which they could have scored 200. But as soon as Rahul on the score of 24 was dismissed in the seventh over, the KXIP lost momentum. Some of KXIP’s decision-making contributed to that too the out-of-form Yuvraj Singh was sent out to bat at number three ahead of Mayank Agarwal, whose season strike-rate was 136 and the returning Axar Patel was sent out to bat at number five. Together, Yuvraj and Axar contributed 27 from 26 balls.
Gayle made 50 and finished the innings’ remaining top-scorer of the match. The Jamaican was slow to begin with as he scored only 2 runs from first 9 balls, before exploding and adding 48 off the next 31 balls. The left-hander hit six fours and two sixes during his stay in the middle. Karun Nair made 23 from 12 balls, and a last over blitz from Marcus Stoinis by scoring quick 29 runs which took KXIP to 174-6.
Brief Scores:
Kings XI Punjab 174-6 (Chris Gayle 50, Marcus Stoinis 29*) lost to
Mumbai Indians 176-4 in 19.0 Overs (Suryakumar Yadav 57, Krunal Pandya 31*, Mujeeb ur Rahman 2-37) by 6 wickets.
Man of the Match:
Suryakumar Yadav, for his 42-ball 57.