IPL 2020 | MI v KXIP Match Report: All-round display helps Mumbai sail past Punjab

Two all-rounders of the Mumbai Indians, Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya (yet to bowl in this Indian Premier League season due to fitness), were not even required to bowl during Kings XI Punjab’s run chase as they had already done enough with their bats.

It seems, KXIP could not recover from MI’s astounding batting onslaught in the first inning, leading Mumbai to clinch the contest by a massive margin of 45 runs.

KXIP gave away 62 runs off the last three overs when the Pollard-Pandya duo was in the mood to accelerate. Their task was made easier by some tactical blunders from the rival camp who curiously chose James Neesham and Krishnappa Gowtham for the 18th and 20th overs.

When the Purple Cap holder Mohammed Shami was not spared by the Indian-Caribbean duo in the penultimate over, where he went for 19 runs after bowling his first three overs well (just 17 runs were scored off his bowling until then), one can only sympathise with Neesaham and Gowtham for being the proverbial sacrificial lamb in the death overs -- which certainly is not their strongest aspects of their bowling.

“Today Hardik had to come and swing and he showed his prowess. We know [that the] sky is the limit in the last four overs,” said Pollard, who was named the Player of the Match for his blistering 20-ball 47 knock, which included four 6s and three 4s.

The junior Pandya, who grew up in the Mumbai Indians camp by admiring the muscular Trinidadian during his formative years, also chipped in with a typical fiery cameo of 30 runs in just 11 balls with two 6s and three 4s.

Contrasting starts

After losing the toss, MI also lost their opener Quinton de Kock in the very first over and Suryakumar Yadav in the fourth with the score at 21 for 2.

During their run-chase of 192, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal raced away to 33 runs in the first three overs. That was it. While Mumbai managed to recover, consolidate and then explode in their innings -- largely due to captain Rohit Sharma’s 70 runs (off 45 balls) -- Punjab’s chase was in tatters when Agarwal and Karun Nair got out before the Powerplay overs.

“We did not start really well, but we always knew with the kind of attack Punjab had we wanted to capitalise. Those two guys they back themselves to get the runs, it's nice to have them in form as well,” explained MI skipper Rohit Sharma, who also became the only third batsman after Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli to score over 5,000 runs in IPL.

Inexplicable strategy

It seems, KXIP were still scared after the mauling at the hands of Rahul Tewatia’ s five sixes in Sheldon Cottrell’s over in the death overs, the other day.

Cottrell was asked to finish his last of his four overs as early as in the 13th over while bowling. While this cushion provided by his captain made him look the best bowler (one maiden and just 20 runs for one wicket) of the day for KXIP, the move certainly backfired on his team as 89 runs were looted in the last five overs.

Adding salt to the injury, Punjab in contrast just managed to score 34 runs in their last five overs. “Obviously disappointing. Looking back, we could have been three wins out of four. This game, we made some mistakes,” admitted Rahul in his post- match chat.

Punjab’s chances of any miracle may have ended the moment Jasprit Bumrah got rid of Orange Cap holder Mayank Agarwal. Bumrah gave away just 18 runs in his four overs. The convincing win and all-round display by Mumbai has now taken them to the top of the table (because of superior net-run rate) among five teams who are tied with four points each.