Mohali: Ishan Kishan's stylish 75 off 41 balls was complemented by Suryakumar Yadav's 360 degree effort that fetched 66 off 31 balls as Mumbai Indians powered to a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings in an IPL match, here on Wednesday.
Uncapped Jitesh Sharma (49; 27b) matched T20 specialist Liam Livingstone (82 not out; 42b) in flair and flamboyance as the duo stepped up in style in the back end to propel Punjab Kings to a fighting 214/3 after Mumbai Indians opted to bowl.
But Ishan was at his furious best in a 41-ball 75 (7x4, 4x6), while Suryakumar Yadav batted with his usual flair in a 31-ball 66 (8x4, 2x6) to make a mockery of 200-plus chase, winning with seven balls to spare. The duo added 116 runs from just 55 balls as MI raced to the target with seven balls to spare to secure their fifth win from nine matches.
Arshdeep Singh took a stunning catch to dismiss Suryakumar off Aussie seamer Nathan Ellis (2/34) and then he came to bowl the next over and accounted for Ishan with a knuckle ball. The duo were dismissed in eight runs to open up the match with 37 runs needed off 22 balls but Tim David (19 not out) and Tilak Verma (26 not out) sealed the chase.
Tilak Verma (26 not out off 10 balls) launched mercilessly into Arshdeep Singh, who went for 66 in 3.5 overs as it finished in a jiffy in the end. The win pushed MI (10 points from nine matches) to top-six, ahead of Punjab (10 from 10 matches) on net run-rate.
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From being 0/1, it was only a one-way traffic for Mumbai Indians with Ishan forging a counter-attacking fifty-plus partnership with Cameron Green (23; 18b) to set the tempo. The duo got it going against Punjab's ace pacer Arshdeep Singh, hitting him for 16 runs.
Ishan first showed the way with Cameron Green (23 off 18 balls) in a fifty-plus partnership to show the way after their five-time title winning skipper Rohit Sharma capped a three-ball duck in his 200th appearance for his franchise. The left-handed wicketkeeper-batter batted at his belligerent best and gave Mumbai a perfect start in company of Suryakumar.
It was then Suryakumar show that lit up Mohali when he batted with disdain against Sam Curran to race to a 23-ball fifty, his third this season and 19th overall. Suryakumar, who came in as Impact Substitue for debutant Akash Madhwal, suddenly opened the face of his blade to a wide Curran delivery and cleared the backward point boundary with utmost ease.
Curran retuned with a wide fullish delivery and Surya had no problem reaching to it, as he went down on his knee to sail the ball over to 87-metre. The next ball he gave a return catch to Curran but it was too difficult for the pacer as he smashed two more boundaries to get 23 runs from the over.
There was no looking back for the MI duo who kept scoring in boundaries to bring the equation down to 45 runs from last five five overs. Earlier, Livingstone raced to season's first fifty in 32 balls and ended up being the top-scorer with 82 not out (42b), studded with seven boundaries and four sixes.
Giving Livingstone a perfect support, PBKS glovesman Sharma continued to impress as he remained unbeaten on 49 (27b) in a 119-run fourth wicket partnership that came off just 53 balls.
Livingstone was at his furious best when he smacked his English teammate Jofra Archer for three sixes in a row in the 19th over. There was no slam-bang approach but sheer orthodox hits on both sides of the wicket from the Vidarbha keeper-batter.
Sharma looked fluent, be it against the guile of legspinner Chawla or sheer raw pace from Archer as he hit five fours and two sixes, only to remain stranded one run shy of a maiden IPL fifty. MI was letdown big time by their star English pacer Archer who looked rusty and conceded 56 from his full quota.
It was yet another poor show from the MI bowlers at the back-end as they gave away 115 runs from 48 balls to concede a fourth successive 200-plus score. At 99/3 in 12 overs after Chawla's tidy spell of 2/29, MI looked to have tightened the noose after Rohit Sharma opted to bowl.
The duo of Livingstone and Sharma upped the ante in the next over when they took Archer to cleaners in an over that yielded 21 runs. Coming back from an injury, Archer looked wayward and bowled a waist high full toss which would have been a nasty blow but his English teammate managed to put it away.
Sharma then unleashed his fury smashing Archer four boundaries to get into the groove. On batting-belter, Chawla smartly varied his pace and quietly did his job, dismissing a dangerous-looking Shikhar Dhawan (30; 20b) and Matthew Short (27; 26b) in the middle overs.
Having got a reprieve on 23, Dhawan started to break the shackles and stepped out Chawla for a boundary over the bowler's head. Dhawan tried to repeat the same in the next delivery but this time the veteran legspinner had the last laugh when he outfoxed the lefthander, altering his length.
Fresh from their humdinger of a win against Chennai, PBKS could not find their mojo up front after Rohit Sharma opted to bowl. Returning to the same venue where their bowlers were hammered by Lucknow Super Giants to post a mammoth 257/5, PBKS started on a jittery note. Prabhsimran Singh got out in the second over, while Dhawan as always was a slow-starter. (PTI)
