On Wednesday, five-time Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians crashed to their fifth consecutive defeat, losing by 12 runs to Punjab Kings.
Punjab Kings secured their third win of the season as they held their nerves to beat Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in the 23rd match of the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
Mumbai, meanwhile, faced a fifth-successive loss as they remain the only winless side in the season. Batting first, PBKS slammed 198/5, riding on brilliant knocks from Shikhar Dhawan (70) and Mayank Agarwal (52) and Jitesh Sharma (30*). In the run-chase, Dewald Brevis’ (49) blitzkrieg, alongside Tilak Varma (35) and Suryakumar Yadav (43), brought MI close to the total. Still, the two runouts of Tilak and Pollard eventually proved key to the side’s downfall.
The unit fought hard while chasing 199 at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Wednesday. After losing the openers early, the duo of Dewald Brevis and Tilak Varma held the fort and took the Punjab bowlers to the bonkers, especially the South African U-19 star who smashed four consecutive sixes to leg-spinner Rahul Chahar.
Everything was going perfectly fine for the five-time champions until Brevis fell for 49 to Odean Smith. Once the youngster was gone, the MI wickets fell like a house of cards. Their most trusted campaigner, Suryakuamr Yadav, showed a bit of grit towards the end, but nothing could help Mumbai win their first game in the tournament.
Facing the broadcasters was a tough task for losing captain Rohit Sharma and he did with a disappointing smile on his face.
“It’s hardly anything to find out (any negatives), thought we played well, came pretty close to closing the game, a couple of run-outs didn’t help our cause. At one time, we were cruising along but didn’t hold our nerves, credit to PBKS for bowling well in the second half.
We’re trying to play with a different thought process, but it’s not working out well. But I don’t want to take the credit out of the guys who played well and Punjab did so today,” Rohit said.
The Mumbai Indians skipper admitted that the unit isn’t playing good cricket, adding that they need to go to the drawing board and come up with a better plan.
“We aren’t playing good cricket; we need to understand some situations and execute according to it. They got off to a flier, put our bowlers was under pressure, but the pitch was good to bat on and I thought 198 was chaseable. As I said earlier, we need to go back to the drawing-room and come back better prepared,” Rohit concluded.
Punjab captain Mayank Agarwal was named the Player of the Match. He said: “It was a good night, very, very happy to contribute to the team’s win but the crucial thing for us was the two points. I can’t really say that it was just the runs on the board. I thought this game had a lot of ups and downs, there were a lot of crucial moments, and more often than not, we were nailing those crucial moments and winning those crucial moments. Somehow or the other, when the game was 50/50, those moments came towards us.”
