KL Rahul played the captain innings to put his team on winning streak.

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Sat, Apr 24, 2021, 01:18 PM

KL Rahul played the captain innings to put his team on winning streak.

KL Rahul stitched contrasting half-century stands in the company of Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle to help Punjab Kings register a nine-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in the 132-run chase. Even as Punjab won with 14 balls to spare, the defending champions made them struggle to cross the line.

Why did Mumbai Indians post such a low total?
A good reason for that was their slow start, registering the lowest score in powerplay in this season. After being put in to bat, Mumbai Indians struggled to get going. Punjab operated with Moises Henriques and Deepak Hooda - the duo that was expected to fill up the fifth bowler's role. Henriques got some movement early, while Hooda cramped the left-handers with his lines. They combined to bowl five overs upfront, and conceded only 17 - which included the wicket of Quinton de Kock.

Ishan Kishan, who was promoted to No 3, didn't find scoring any easier as he struggled his way to a 17-ball 6 before outside edging Ravi Bishnoi's googly to the 'keeper. Suryakumar Yadav managed to hit a few boundaries, but he too wasn't at his fluent best.

Did Mumbai Indians recover from the poor start?
They did, for a brief while.
In the company of Suryakumar, Rohit Sharma managed to revive Mumbai Indians' innings. The MI captain, who was scoring at less than a run-a-ball for the first seven overs, broke free in the eighth when he welcomed Fabian Allen into the attack with a couple of dabs for boundaries. Even though he largely relied on his timing and placement instead of going hard at the balls, he did hit a couple of release shots for sixes. The duo stitched a 79-run stand for the ninth wicket in 9.1 overs. However, the famed lower-middle order couldn't do much to accelerate from thereon.

What happened in the death overs?
The Pandya brothers again failed in their attempt to go hard in the slog overs, while a more measured approach by Kieron Pollard reaped better returns. Pollard did club a six but a 12-ball 16 didn't give the scoreboard the desired push. Both Mohammed Shami and Bishnoi returned identical figures of 2 for 21.

How did Punjab Kings respond?
Their approach at the start was much in contrast to that of Mumbai Indians. Rahul got going with a couple of boundaries in the second over of the innings, bowled by Krunal Pandya, while Mayank too added to the left-arm spinner's misery by lofting him over the extra cover boundary for a six. With spinners unable to extract much with the new ball and only two frontline pace bowling options available for MI, Jasprit Bumrah had to bowl two overs in the powerplay. The Punjab openers, despite the low chase, didn't hold back on their attack against Bumrah, and thus, even as he bowled well, he got hit for a couple of boundaries. At the five-over mark, they had reached 40 - 23 runs ahead of MI.