Who won yesterday IPL match: Mumbai Indians’ losing streak at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad continued on Sunday when the Hardik Pandya-led franchise suffered a five-wicket defeat at the hands of the Punjab Kings. This defeat dashed hopes that this would be a redemption year for Hardik Pandya, who had a tough time in the cash-rich league last year. Meanwhile, Iyer, who believes he did not receive enough credit for KKR’s IPL victory last year, now has the opportunity to lift the coveted trophy for the second consecutive year, albeit with different teams.
Top highlights of MI vs PBKS match:
For a while, it looked as though the rain might spoil the fun of the PBKS vs MI match, as it continued to drizzle in patches in Ahmedabad. Fortunately, the two hours of reserve time set aside by the BCCI proved useful, and the match began at 9.45 pm without any overs being lost.
PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bowl first, following his batting lineup’s shocking collapse in the previous match. PBKS took Rohit Sharma’s wicket early in the innings when the batsman was dismissed within the 30-yard circle while attempting to hit a big shot to Marcus Stoinis.
However, Jonny Bairstow posed a threat to PBKS as he hit the PBKS bowlers all around the park, helping his side to a strong powerplay. Shortly after the six-over mark, Bairstow was dismissed by Vyshak Vijay Kumar on a score of 38.
Suryakumar Yadav (44 off 26 balls) and Tilak Varma (44 off 29 balls) then led MI to a stable position, from which they could accelerate in the final overs. Naman Dhir (37 off 18 balls) took over from there, helping MI to post over 200 runs in their 20 overs.
While chasing a total of 204 runs, PBKS lost the early wickets of their openers, Prabhsimran Singh (6 off 9 balls) and Priyansh Arya (20 off 10 balls), bringing Josh Inglis and Shreyas Iyer to the crease. Inglis got into attacking mode straight away and maintained the scoring rate for PBKS, while Iyer took a bit of time to find his rhythm. Following Inglis’ dismissal, Iyer partnered with Nehal Wadhera (48 off 29 balls) to put PBKS in a strong position.
By the time Wadhera was dismissed, PBKS were well in the game, but Iyer (81 off 47 balls) remained until the end to ensure that victory was not snatched from his grasp.
