On this day, 453 runs were piled up at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai as both Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians batting line-up went berserk and bashed the hapless bowlers that came their way. The stunning chase of Mumbai Indians fell just short off the Himalayan target and it produced an unbelievable match.
Needing 16 from the last over, Mohit Sharma was clobbered for a six on the second ball before he pulled things back to bowl three consecutive dots as Mumbai managed only 223/6. Kings XI Punjab thus held their nerves and the visitors edged past Mumbai Indians by seven runs in the 51st match of the IPL 2017.
Chasing a mammoth 231, Mumbai began brilliantly with the opening duo of Lendl Simmons 59 (32) and Parthiv Patel 38(23) putting on 99 runs before losing 4/22 to fall apart. A late surge then by Hardik Pandya 30(13) and Pollard 50(24), including a 27-run 16th over from Matt Henry, failed to take the home side across the finish line.
Mumbai got off to a flier with Simmons and Patel clobbering the bowlers all over the park, to race to 52/0 in just five overs. Simmons was at his brutal best, welcoming Mohit Sharma with two sixes before taking left-arm spinner Axar Patel to the cleaners twice in the next over to bring up his half-century off just 27 balls.
Lendl Simmons, who survived a dropped chance on 44, when Mohit failed to latch on to a regulation catch, failed to carry on the good work and was undone by a one-handed stunning catch by Martin Guptill at the long-on boundary off Punjab skipper Glenn Maxwell. Hardik out-scored Pollard at one point, clobbering Tewatia for a six before milking Henry for two consecutive maximums before a sensational diving catch from Saha off Sandeep Sharma proved fatal for the all-rounder.
Earlier, Kings XI was off to a flying start with the new opening duo of Martin Guptill (36 from 18 balls) and Saha putting on 68 runs before being separated by Karn. Joined by captain Glenn Maxwell (47 off 21), the second wicket partnership flourished to 63 in no time as the Australian meted out special treatment to Karn and veteran offie Harbhajan Singh, clobbering the spinners for five sixes in consecutive overs.
Comfortably placed at 131/2, Aussie Shaun Marsh (25 off 16) added 52 runs for the third wicket with Saha, who by now had reached his half-century off 31 balls as Punjab raced to 183 in 17 overs. Mumbai managed to pull back things for a while but could not stop the visitors cross the 200-run mark.
