After the first half-century of this season by Shikhar Dhawan, Punjab Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in their Indian Premier League 2022 clash at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Wednesday.
Asked to bat first, Punjab Kings got 198/5 before Mumbai Indians finished with 186/9.
Mumbai got off to a confident start in the chase as captain Rohit Sharma hit three fours and a couple of sixes early on. But his string of low scores continued as he was dismissed for 28 off 17 in the fourth over. Ishan Kishan (3) fell in the next over and MI found themselves in trouble.
Tilak Varma got going quickly but Dewald Brevis, in at No 3, couldn’t get off the mark with his first eight deliveries. However, the 18-year-old South Africa right-hander bounced back in style by hitting leg-spinner Rahul Chahar for a four and four consecutive sixes in one over.
Brevis was in line for a memorable half-century but he was dismissed by Odean Smith for 49 off 25. Varma, who had looked impressive too, was run-out soon after for 36 off 20. And things got worse for MI as Kieron Pollard (10 of 11) got run-out too soon after.
It all came down to Suryakumar Yadav and the in-form right-hander scored 43 off 30 but couldn’t help his team get their first win of the season after four losses.
Odean picked three wickets in the last over of the match to finish with 4/30 in three overs, but it was Kagiso Rabada, who got the key wickets of Rohit and Suryakumar, who was the most impressive PBKS bowler with figures of 2/29 from his four overs.
Earlier, Punjab Kings enjoyed a strong opening partnership as skipper Mayank Agarwal and Dhawan took control of proceedings.
The right-hand-left-hand duo played at a good tempo and found boundaries consistently. Punjab got to 90/0 in nine overs before Agarwal was dismissed for 52 off 32.
Mumbai pulled things back from thereon and conceded 61 runs for four wickets in the next eight overs. Jonny Bairstow (12) and Liam Livingstone (2) couldn’t get going and Dhawan perished for 70 off 50 in the 17th over.
But the Punjab innings was revived as wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma (30* off 15) and Shahrukh Khan (15 off 6) got the big hits in the last three overs, which proved to be the difference at the end.
Jasprit Bumrah, with figures of 1/28 from his four overs, delivered an impressive spell for Mumbai.