Kings XI Punjab beat Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an exciting encounter and got victory over the team sitting pretty on top of the table. Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat at the PCA Stadium,Mohali, Chandigarh on Friday. Sachin Tendulkar and Shikhar Dhawan opened the innings for Mumbai.
They have included Zaheer Khan, who has been declared fit, to strengthen their pace attack. Unfortunately, Dhawan fell on the very first ball of the second over bowled by Irfan Pathan. Irfan bowled an in-swinger to Dhawan, who, trying to cut it to square-leg area, played on and was back after scoring only two runs.
Mumbai Indians got their 50 in 5.4 overs. Rayudu slammed both Irfan Pathan and Bret Lee and spared none of them. He stepped out and slammed Bret Lee over the sqare-leg boundry for a four. Actually it was good captaincy by Sangakara as he opted for the spinner to bowl after pacers were being hammered by the Mumbai batsmen.
Piyush showed his mettle for the first time in the IPL-3 today and justified his inclusion in the World Cup Indian team. Rayudu was bowled by Piyush Chawla for 32 runs.
Saurabh Tewary was stumped by Sangakara and the case was referred upstairs for the final decision. Replays revealed that he was short of his crease when the bails were dislodged.
Piyush got three wickets and Irfan Pathan also took three wickets and their effort did not allow the Mumbai team to even cross the 160 run mark.
Tendulkar had made 25 only when he misjudged the ball from Piyush Chawla and his timber was disturbed. Sathish was caught by Sangakara for 20 runs and Pollard was bowled by Pathan for 18 runs. Duminy played well and contributed 35 runs and was run out by Sangakara. None of the other batsmen could contribute and Mumbai managed 154 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs.
Piyush Chawla got 3 wickets for 24 runs and Irfan Pathan got three wickets for 29 runs.
In reply thereto Kings XI Punjab opened their innings and both Adrain Barath and Jayawardane played determined knocks. Mumbai Indians reached the score of 50 runs in 5.2 overs. Barath was out lbw b Duminy and Jayawardane was caught by Tewary bowled Malinga for 31 runs.
Sangakara arrived at the crease and played a confident knock of 56 runs and was caught by Dhawan bowled Malinga for 56 runs. Sangakara led his team from the front to beat Mumbai Indians who are sitting on top of the table with 12 points. They still need one victory to qualify for the Semi-finals.
Sangakara’s knock paved the way for Kings XI Punjab’s victory over Mumbai. Punjab needed 15 runs in the last two overs and they scored 12 runs in the 19th over. Irfan Pathan scored the winning runs in the last over and victory was achieved with four balls to spare.
Yuvraj Singh, who has still not shown his batting prowess in the IPL-3, was out caught Duminy bowled Pollard for 15 runs.
Mallinga, Duminy and Pollard got one wicket each.
The award for the Maximum Sixes went to J.P.Duminy.
The Karbonn Kamaal Catch award went to Kumar Sangakara.
The Man of the match was awarded to Kumar Sangakara.
Ravi Matah