Mumbai: Three weeks into the tournament, a few teams have raced away from the others, while those languishing at the bottom are struggling to pick themselves up. Entering the Thursday night clash, Punjab Kings arrived as one of the most dominant teams, while Mumbai Indians carried all the worries.
And that showed in the results too. PBKS chased down MI’s below par 196-run target in 16.3 overs for a 7-wicket win. Prabhsimran Singh led the way with an unbeaten 80 off 39 balls. MI’s Quinton de Kock’s 112 not out off 60 balls ended up in a lost cause.
In this season’s high-scoring IPL, 200 run totals have looked inadequate. Certainly at the Wankhede, you required those extra 20 runs as a cushion. Those runs did not come for MI. Their pace ace Jasprit Bumrah is still searching for his first wicket, five matches into the season.
MI needed wickets in the Powerplay. Mystery spinner Allah Gazanfar provided two crucial breakthroughs. Trying to capitalise, Hardik Pandya gave Bumrah an extra over, to see if he could bounce Shreyas Iyer out. But Iyer’s back foot troubles are a thing of the past. He proved that all over again, finishing with 68 (35b).
Despite some tidy early overs, Bumrah couldn’t get among the wickets. To make matters worse, he dropped Prabhsimran Singh, on 12, in the fourth over from Hardik. Punjab had the rampaging Prabhsimran at one end and the assured presence of Iyer at the other. Last year’s runners-up never looked in trouble during the chase. The 139-run third-wicket stand between Prabhsimran and Iyer, off 67 balls silenced the home crowd.
MI did not have wicket-takers or a bowling attack with meticulous defensive skills. They didn’t even have an efficient sixth bowling option in the Impact Player era, summing up their lackluster campaign.
The shining knight was De Kock with the bat. One can’t keep a proven match-winner out for too long. Among the select few active Mumbai Indians’ players to have tasted success, De Kock was forced to warm the benches for four matches. Rohit Sharma’s untimely hamstring injury brought him right back in front and centre, even if that meant two left-handers starting together.
Ryan Rickleton fell early to Arshdeep Singh’s swing. The first five overs were dominated by Punjab Kings. In a game of fine margins, Yuzvendra Chahal dropped a sitter at short-fine leg to a fine piece of bowling by Marco Jansen. Naman Dhir’s attempted scoop did not cost him his wicket. Dhir would make Chahal pay. Introduced in the first over after a quiet Powerplay (47-2), Dhir tore into Chahal for a 19-run over.
Chahal brought out his brave game face and kept giving the ball air. The De Kock-Dhir pair took a heavy toll, making it a forgettable outing for Chahal (3-0-45-0).
De Kock was in his element. Looking in complete control, he frequently cut the pacers between point and third man and used his back foot game to hit maximums on the leg side. To MI’s dismay, no other batter barring Dhir 50 (31b) was able to provide support. More importantly, none of the finishers were able to connect. That left the home side’s death overs’ scoring rate, the same as the rest of the innings, around 10 rph.
The 19th over bowled by Arshdeep was as impactful as his first three. He cleaned up the dangerous Sherfane Rutherford (1) in the bargain. Arshdeep’s figures for the day (4-0-22-3) on a typical batting-friendly Mumbai surface stood out.
