Kings XI Punjab fall inches short, Mumbai Indians notch 3rd straight win

Kings XI Punjab dared to chase down Mumbai Indians' total of 174, before falling short by just four runs to give the hosts their third straight win in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Mumbai Indians held their nerve to sneak home by four runs © IANS (File Photo)

By Jaideep Vaidya

Mumbai: Apr 29, 2013
 
Kings XI Punjab dared to chase down Mumbai Indians‘ total of 174, before falling short by just four runs to give the hosts their third straight win in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Mumbai Indians maintained their fourth-place position in the points table with 12 points, while Punjab lie sixth at the end of the match.

David Miller (56 off 34 balls), David Hussey (34 off 18 balls) and a late blast from Praveen Kumar (24 off 15 balls) almost took Punjab past the line after the rest of the batting failed to show up, but Mumbai held their nerve to complete a last-ball win.

Sans Adam Gilchrist at the top, Punjab weren’t off to the best of starts as Mandeep Singh (9) and Manan Vohra (1) threw away their wickets early to Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson, respectively.
 
Hussey senior and Gilly’s replacement, Shaun Marsh, blocked a couple of overs to settle in and steady the wobble, as Punjab reached 23 for two in four overs. Marsh shifted gears in Malinga’s  second over by flicking the ‘slinga’ off his legs to the fine-leg fence for four. Hussey, meanwhile, started to give himself room and lashed at anything with enough room. The duo begged to take the game away from Mumbai as 32 runs were scored off the next two overs.
 
Pragyan Ojha was brought into the attack in the seventh over, and Marsh welcomed the left-arm spinner by stepping down the track and launching him towards long-on for what looked like an easy six. However, something/someone superhuman was to intervene.
 
Kieron ‘Superman’ Pollard plucked out a catch from absolutely nowhere — and with one hand at that — as he leaped high in the air at long-on to grab the ball maybe 12 feet above ground level. The natural athlete that he is, Clark Kent’s West Indian avatar managed to keep his balance after landing back on earth and did not let his feet touch the rope, as the Wankhede took a couple of minutes to take it in. Even Pollard, the way he danced around his teammates in celebration, perhaps did not believe what he had just done.
 
Hussey, equally shocked with what had happened to his partner, holed out to long-on in Ojha’s next over, as Punjab’s diminishing hopes were wiped off.
 
Perhaps not, at least not till Miller was at the crease. The swashbuckling South African punished Pollard for his audacious catch by hitting the slow-medium pacer for 15 runs off his first over, including two massive hits over the fence.
 
Miller never gave up, even as his teammates exchanged places at the other end. He kept the boundaries coming regularly and, with an innocuous sort of aggression, took Punjab closer and closer to their target. From 95 required from 60 balls, Miller got the equation down to 37 from 18 with a six almost every over.
 
In the 18th over, with 26 to win off 14, Miller mistimed a straight drive that went straight to Sachin Tendulkar at cover, as Mumbai and the Wankhede breathed a sigh of relief.
 
Praveen Kumar hit Malinga for six in the penultimate over to give himself 17 to get off the last six balls. Rohit Sharma tossed the ball to Dhawal Kulkarni, who had been expensive. Kulkarni bowled an above-waist no-ball to start off. Praveen got it down to 11 from four, before Kulkarni bowled another high full toss that looked like another no-ball to the naked eye, but leg-umpire Asad Rauf saw something else.

An incensed Praveen protested, but it fell to deaf years. Praveen had no choice but to go for the big hit and got enough wood on a one-handed heave off the next ball that landed just over long-on for six. With five to win off the last ball, Kulkarni bowled another full toss, but Praveen could only sky it to Tendulkar at point for an easy catch.

Read the first-innings report here.

Brief scores:

Mumbai Indians 174 for 3 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 79*, Dwayne Smith 33; Praveen Kumar 1 for 24) beat Kings XI Punjab 170 in 20 overs (David Miller 56, David Hussey 34; Harbhajan Singh 3 for 14) by 4 runs.

Man of the Match: Rohit Sharma

Full Scorecard

Photo Gallery 

(Jaideep Vaidya is a multiple sports buff and a writer at CricketCountry. He has a B.E. in Electronics Engineering, but that isn’t fooling anybody. He started writing on sports during his engineering course and fell in love with it. The best day of his life came on April 24, 1998, when he witnessed birthday boy Sachin Tendulkar pummel a Shane Warne-speared Aussie attack from the stands during the Sharjah Cup Final. A diehard Manchester United fan, you can follow him on Twitter @jaideepvaidya. He also writes a sports blog – The Mullygrubber )