Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Mumbai manage to win finally

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Mumbai: The Mumbai Indians lifted themselves from the floor of the VIVO IPL 2018 standings after they defeated Kings XI Punjab by six wickets at the Holkar Cricket Stadium on Friday night. After opting to bowl and restricting the hosts KXIP to 174-6, MI chased down the runs in 19 overs riding on the back of a well-constructed half-century from Suryakumar Yadav and middle-order blitzes from captain Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya.


Chasing 175, MI were cautious at the start — crawling to 39-1 in the first six overs. Suryakumar Yadav feasted on one bowler — Ankit Rajpoot — but played out the others respectfully; he scored 31 runs from 18 balls off Rajpoot, and made 26 from 24 balls against the rest. After Yadav was dismissed for 57 in the twelfth over, Hardik Pandya (23), Rohit Sharma (24 not out) and Krunal Pandya (31 not out) completed the job.


Earlier in the evening, put in to bat, Chris Gayle and KL Rahul stitched together their 5th 50-plus partnership of the season and gave KXIP a platform from which they could have scored 200. But after Rahul (24 from 20 balls) was dismissed in the seventh over, the innings lost momentum. Some of KXIP’s decision-making contributed to that too: the out-of-form Yuvraj Singh was sent out to bat at number three (ahead of Mayank Agarwal, whose season strike-rate was 136) and the returning Axar Patel was sent out to bat at number five. Together, Yuvraj and Axar contributed 27 from 26 balls.


Gayle made 50 — his fourth 50-plus score in five innings this season — and would finish the innings’ top-scorer. The Jamaican was slow to begin with; he was 2 from 9 balls, before exploding and adding 48 off the next 31 balls. The left-hander hit six fours and two sixes during his stay in the middle.


Karun Nair made 23 from 12 balls, and a last over blitz from Marcus Stoinis (29* from 15 balls) took KXIP to 174-6.


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