Reigning champions Mumbai Indians won the 13th round match of the IPL by an easy margin. KL Rahul’s Kings XI Punjab were bowled out for 48 by Hitman and his team. Punjab surrendered unconditionally without challenging Mumbai at any stage of the match.
Batting first, Mumbai scored 191 for four while Punjab were under pressure. In reply, Mumbai took the reins of the game, taking wickets at regular intervals. Punjab were all out for 143 for eight. With the exception of Nicholas Pooran (44), no one resisted the Punjab line-up. He hit three fours and two sixes in 27 balls. Mayank Agarwal (25), KL Rahul (17), Karun Nair (0), Glenn Maxwell (11), James Neesham (7), Sarfraz Khan (7) and Ravi Bishnoi (1) were the other outfielders. K Gautam (22) and Mohammad Shami (2) were not out.
Jaspreet Bumra, Rahul Chahar and James Pattinson took two wickets apiece for Punjab. Trent Bolt and Krunal Pandya took one wicket each. Rohit Sharma, who had earlier unleashed the captaincy, led Mumbai to a superb score. Hitman’s 45-ball innings included eight fours and three sixes. It was the explosive performance in the last overs that put Mumbai on the brink of 200. Mumbai scored 89 runs in the last five overs. Kieron Pollard was unbeaten on 47 off 20 balls with four sixes and three fours while Hardik Pandya was unbeaten on 30 off 11 balls with three fours and two sixes.
Ishant Kishan returned with 28 runs. The others out are Quinton Decock (0) and Suryakumar Yadav (10). Punjab made a change in the squad for the last match. Gautam was replaced by Murugan Ashwin in the playing XI. But there was no change in the Mumbai team.
