Rahul and Gayle help Punjab Kings to a comfortable victory over Mumbai Indians
Punjab Kings won by 9 wickets against Mumbai Indians at Chepauk Stadium, Chennai.
Punjab Kings captain won the toss and put Mumbai Indians to bat on a wicket that is becoming more complicated to bat on with every match passed. Mumbai had a weak start to their innings, with de Kock getting out early on daunting off-break delivery by Deepak Hooda. It's not very often we see a 5th bowler introduced so early in the match, but it turned out to be a great move. Rohit Sharma looked alerted throughout his knock of 63 off 52 balls. Ishan Kishan was brought at number 3 to continue with the left-right combination at the crease. Still, he looked unsettled from the start and got out for a mere 7(17) on a googly bowled by Ravi Bishnoi.
MI staggered to 21-1 at the end of the powerplay. In-form batsman Suryakumar tried to increase the tempo of the game, tried to go for a switch hit off Bishnoi, but it went straight into the hands of Gayle at short third Man. Pandya brothers and Pollard much in the end as Mumbai was able to reach a total of only 131/6. Ravi Bishnoi was a standout bowler from PBKS with his bowling figures of 2-21.
In the second innings, Punjab openers played very carefully as they were looking for a desperate win. At the end of the powerplay, they were 45-0. In the 8th over, Mayank Agarwal tried to go for a big one over long-on, but he was caught way behind the line by Suryakumar Yadav. Then entered the Universe Boss(Gayle), who started slowly with some dot balls and steadily improved his timing. Then he pulled a shot for six off Boult's delivery on his comeback over. Gayle lingered around his captain and made sure to sailed past the target; he scored 43 runs off 35 deliveries. Even after beautiful spells bowled by Chahar(1-19) & Yadav(0-20), MI could not stop the PBKS to win.
KL Rahul was given the Man of the Match award for his unbeaten 62. PBKS moves on to 5th place on the points table with this victory.
