Jaipur, May 26: Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya pushed Mumbai Indians to 184 for seven despite a decent bowling effort from Punjab Kings in the penultimate league fixture of the Indian Premier League here on Monday.
With both teams needing a win to seal a top-two spot in the standings, Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer put Mumbai Indians in to bat at a venue that has produced 200-plus first innings scores for majority of the season.
Suryakumar (57 off 39 balls), who has been a picture of consistency this season, broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the highest run scorer for the Mumbai outfit in an IPL season.
Though opener Ryan Rickelton (27 off 20) played some sublime strokes, Mumbai Indians could get 52 for one in the powerplay.
Arshdeep Singh swung the ball both ways in the opening over of the game, troubling Rickelton who managed to survive.
In the following over, Rickelton got a couple of boundaries from Kyle Jamieson, who was making his debut for Punjab Kings.
Rohit Sharma (24 off 21) was slow off the blocks before a straight hit over mid-off against Marco Jansen got him going.
Jansen, playing his final game of the season for Punjab Kings, induced a mishit from Rickelton that had the opener caught at mid-on in the sixth over.
In the absence of Yuzvendra Chahal, left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar was up to the task again in the middle overs and got the prized wicket of Rohit, whose mishit was brilliantly pouched by Nehal Wadhera at long-on.
At 106 for four in the 13th over, Punjab Kings controlled the proceedings. Hardik would have been out on the first legal ball he faced but Vijaykumar Vyshak missed a regulation return catch.
Vyshak too played a big role in keeping Mumbai Indians batters in check by removing Will Jacks and Tilak Varma in quick succession. His ploy of bowling a wide line got him the desired results in the middle overs.
The momentum shifted Mumbai Indians’ way in the penultimate over and on this occasion, Vyshak was at the receiving end as he leaked 23 runs.
Suryakumar and Naman Dhir (20 off 12) got the much-needed hits in the death overs. The 20th over from Arshdeep Singh was exactly what Punjab Kings needed to close the innings. The left-arm pacer took two wickets and gave away just three runs. (PTI)
