Last night, the match was won by Mumbai Indians beating Kings XI Punjab by 6 wickets at the Holkar Stadium of Indore.Mumbai Indians were in a very desperate need to win the match, as before this match the team had lost 6 off 8 matches. After this match, the team was able to win it’s third match.
The players of Mumbai Indians were high on confidence since the beginning of the match.All thanks to their brilliant bowling and fielding efforts as they didn’t allow free runs to Punjab in the first innings.
The bowlers of the team made the first innings very slow for KXIP. Chris Gayle scored a half century in 40 balls, on the other hand, KL Rahul scored 24 runs off 20 balls. While the knock played by Yuvraj Singh. 14 runs in 14 balls, disappointed everyone, Karun Nair’s knock, on the other hand impressed everyone as he played 23 runs off 14 balls.
In the second innings, Krunal Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav took the match by storm and The target of 174 runs was very wonderfully chased by the players of Mumbai Indians.
Suryakumar Yadav scored 57 runs in 42 balls, he smashed 6 fours and 3 sixes. It was a slow and steady performance by all the players of Mumbai Indians until Krunal Pandya came in and scored 31 runs in 12 balls, hitting 4 fours and 2 sixes with a strike rate of 258.
Before him, the skipper of the team, Rohit Sharma scored 24 runs in 15 balls. Hardik Pandya scored 23 runs in 13 balls.
Talking about the match, the skipper of KXIP, Ravichandran Ashwin, said:
“I thought the wicket was a bit sticky, said the same during the toss. We played pretty well, but didn’t get enough runs in the end. If not for Stoinis, we wouldn’t have got 174. We fought well, if a few things had gone our way, we might have ended as winners. We bowled pretty well, but this wasn’t our night.
Not really (talking about the break taking away their momentum), it’s just a perception, the week off didn’t hurt us. This tournament isn’t all that easy, it’s not easy to knock off 16 points, if we play like this for the next 3-4 games, we should be good enough to qualify for the knockouts. Captaincy brings a lot of responsibility, so far so good. 6 games to go, it’s not about getting 3 wins, if we play the brand of cricket that we are playing, we should do good.”
Player of the match, Suryakumar Yadav said:
“I am enjoying my new role, opening the innings for Mumbai Indians. Pushing it really hard every game, trying to give good starts so that it helps the team to set good totals. Also while chasing, we need to begin well to ease the pressure off the others in the middle order.
I am not thinking too much, trying to keep it simple. Trying to play my natural game opening the innings, not trying too many things. Feeling really good and trying to improve my game as time goes by. Would like to finish games off too.”
The skipper of Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma, after winning the match said:
“I think we are still alive. Good performance tonight. Much needed for us. We needed everyone to come and put a collective effort. We started well with the ball. To restrict their batting unit on this pitch at this ground was a great effort. And to chase it down the way we did was really nice. Wasn’t really easy early on but we knew that we had a lot of depth in our batting.
The way we went about our chase in the first 10 overs, I felt we needed momentum. So, Hardik, the way he plays, was suited to do that. Hence, I held myself back for the end and having played here before, I know what kind of shots work. Always feels good when you finish off the chase. That is something which is a pattern for us. We’ve been giving too many at the death but that’s how the game goes. I had to bring Jasprit in the 19th over with two set batsmen and if he struck, it would have made things easier for Hardik.
Plus the longer boundaries would have helped Hardik in the 20th over. That’s how it goes sometimes. I have to use Jasprit really well and the others around him are doing the job for us. It’s about being really smart with the ball. It is important not to look too far ahead, need to focus on one game at a time and to think how we can come out on top in that game. Playoffs are important but we need to win games to reach there.
Big challenge for us to continue this momentum from hereon. In the past we have won games and then gone on to lose a few games. Don’t want that to happen again. Today was a perfect night for us, we did exactly what we spoke of. Life is easy for the captain when the said plans are executed.”
Well it was a well deserved win for Mumbai Indians, what do you think about this?
Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
