VISAKHAPATNAM — Marcus Stoinis (4-15) and Wriddhiman Saha (56) helped Kings XI Punjab stun Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets in IPL 2016 at Visakhapatnam here Friday.
After this victory, Punjab jumped above Rising Pune Supergiants at the penultimate position, while Mumbai stays at the 5th spot.
Earlier, Punjab bowlers put up a commanding show to restrict Mumbai to 124 for 9. Unmukt Chand and Ambati Rayudu went in quick succession, while Punjab skipper Murali Vijay kept making bowling changes and didn’t let the Mumbai batsmen settle down. In the first 8 overs, he made three bowling changes by rotating Stoinis with spinners Akshar Patel and KC Kariappa. The tactic paid off as Rohit Sharma was castled by Patel while sweeping.
Kieron Pollard played a breezy 20-ball 27 to help MI score past 120. But his stay was cut short by Stoinis. In 6 matches, Stoinis has taken 8 wickets at an impressive strike-rate of 15.00. Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma gave finishing touches by conceding only 20 runs and scalping 2 wickets in the last 3 overs to restrict MI to 124 for 9.
Tim Southee made early inroads by dismissing Hashim Amla on a duck. Amla tried to flick away an in-swinger and eventually got caught in the crease. The onus was then on in-form Vijay and Saha to take their team over the line. They did not take any risk. They waited for the right delivery to put it away. They stitched a match-winning 116-run partnership and scored a half-century each to humble MI by 7 wickets.
None of the MI bowlers could impress. Experienced campaigner Harbhajan Singh leaked most runs in his 4 overs.
MI’s playing XI took everyone by surprise. Parthiv Patel, who played a match-winning innings in MI’s previous contest against KXIP, was replaced with Unmukt Chand. The decision didn’t pan out well as Chand was dismissed for a 3-ball duck.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 124-9 (Kieron Pollard 27, Nitish Rana 25; Mitchell McClenaghan 2-24, Tim Southee 1-22).
Kings XI Punjab 127-3 (Wriddihiman Saha 56, Murali Vijay 54 not ou; Marcus Stoinis 4-15, Sandeep Sharma 2-11).
Gayle backs day-night Tests
Explosive West Indian opener Chris Gayle has backed day-night Tests and believes they could make the longest form of the game more popular.
Australia and New Zealand played the first floodlit test at the Adelaide Oval in November, attracting more than 123,000 fans through the gates.
"It's going to be different for the fans (but) I don't see any reason why the concept can't take off and be as successful as the shorter forms of the game," Gayle told reporters in Bengaluru.
The tall left-hander, who scored 7,214 runs in 103 Tests, played his last Test against Bangladesh in 2014.
India and Pakistan are scheduled to play day-night Tests in 2016 while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are considering following suit. — Agencies
