Mumbai Indians recorded a thrilling nine-run victory over Punjab Kings to register their only third win of the IPL 2024 season on Thursday, April 18. Punjab Kings made a late comeback while chasing a 193-run target but Mumbai avoided a late scare to return to the winning ways at Mullanpur’s Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium.
Coming into this game after a heavy loss against Chennai Super Kings, Hardik Pandy-led produced an impressive all-round performance. Suryakumar Yadav smashed 78 runs off 53 balls to help Mumbai post 192 total while batting first and pacers Gerald Coetzee and Jasprit Bumrah took early wickets to stumble Punjab to 14 for 4.
But Punjab made a sensational comeback through Shashank Singh’s 41 off 25 balls and Ashutosh Sharma’s valiant 61 off just 28 balls. Mumbai managed to avoid a late scare by defending 12 runs in the last over and jumped to seventh place in the points table.
Meanwhile, Suryakumar’s second fifty of the season put Mumbai on track for a big total but the likes of Hardik Pandya and Tim David failed to finish. Tilak Varma smashed a crucial 34* off 18 balls and Rohit contributed with 36 runs. Harshal Patel took three wickets for 31 and stand-in skipper Sam Curran bagged two for Punjab Kings.
Chasing a big total, Punjab suffered a disastrous start to their innings with top-four batters returning to the pavilion inside 2.1 overs. Both Coetzee and Bumrah took two wickets each in their powerplay spells to put Mumbai in favourites position to record a huge win.
But Ashutosh Sharma and Harpreet Brar pulled off 57 runs for the eighth wicket to take the game to the wire. Ashutosh recorded his first fifty of the season by smashing 61 off 28 balls with the help of two fours and seven sixes.
Punjab Kings Playing XI: Rilee Rossouw, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh (substituted by Harpreet Bhatia).
Mumbai Indians Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (substituted by Akash Madhwal), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Mohammad Nabi, Gerald Coetzee, Shreyas Gopal, Jasprit Bumrah.