Ashutosh Sharma gave Mumbai Indians a huge scare with a sensational 61 before the five-time champions qualified with a nine-run victory over Punjab Kings in the IPL in Mullanpur on Thursday. Ashutosh blasted a burst of sixes in his 28-ball knock that took Punjab from the brink to close to the finish line, but his dismissal in the 18th over turned the game in Mumbai Indians’ favor. Punjab, who were left reeling at 17/4 in their chase of 193, came roaring back through Ashutosh and Shashank Singh (41 off 25) before finishing with 183 in 19.1 overs.
The win helped Mumbai Indians move up to 7th place, while Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings dropped one place each to move to 8th and ninth place respectively. The rest of the points table remained unchanged.
Virat Kohli remained at the top spot in the run-scorers chart while Jasprit Bumrah replaced Yuzvendra Chahal for the Purple Cap.
Suryakumar Yadav (78) starred with the bat for Mumbai Indians, guiding them to 192 for seven.
It was Mumbai’s third win in seven games, while Punjab’s slide continued with their fifth defeat in seven matches.
Despite an early four-wicket burst from pacers Jasprit Bumrah (3/21) and Gerald Coetzee (3/32), MI once again paid a heavy price for being ordinary with the ball. Akash Madhwal gave 46 for one wicket in his 3.1 overs.
Ashutosh produced a breathtaking knock, hitting seven sixes and two fours after Shashank’s counter-attack brought Punjab back on track after early wickets.
Right-hander Shashank hit each of his three sixes off leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal (1/26).
Ashutosh was deft with his strikes, especially on the sides of the legs.
Harpreet Brar proved that he is no fool with the bat either, as the left-handed tailender delivered towering hits in his vital 20-ball 21 with two fours and a six. At the top of the order, Prabhsimran Singh’s (0) poor run persisted as the right-hander edged backwards and was caught by a diving Ishan Kishan, with Coetzee redeeming himself after a poor start with the ball.
Bumrah put Mumbai Indians in complete command with double strikes in his opening over.
On his fourth delivery, the ace unleashed a vicious yorker that left Rilee Rossouw (0) almost toppling over with her middle stump torn off.
Later, a clever review against an on-field call for wide resulted in Bumrah getting his second wicket off an innocuous delivery.
This, shot through the leg, saw the ball kiss the bat of Sam Curran (6) before landing on Ishan Kishan’s glove, which was confirmed by DRS analysis.
Coetzee then heaped even more misery on the fallible Punjab by defeating Liam Livingstone (1).
Earlier, Suryakumar and Tilak Varma (34 not out from 18) played strong knocks on a slow wicket to take Mumbai Indians to a competitive total.
On a typically low and slow surface here, MI’s batsmen struggled for time but posted the highest total so far at the IPL’s newest venue.
Rohit (36 off 25) and Suryakumar provided the rock with a robust 81-run stand for the second wicket before Varma and Tim David (14 off seven) found their mojo.
Playing his 250th IPL match, Rohit scored 6,500 runs in the competition.
(With PTI inputs)
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