Kings XI Punjab have some serious issues to comprehend. Their death bowling has been below-par. Their middle-order too hasn’t contributed to the franchise’s success. Kings XI Punjab, on Thursday, were completely outplayed by Mumbai Indians as the latter won the game by 48 runs.
Invited to bat, Mumbai Indians were off to an awful start, having lost de Kock and Suyakumar Yadav early. However, Rohit Sharma didn’t let that affect the team as he went berserk and laid the foundation for a big total. During his inning, he also achieved the 5000-run landmark in IPL. With that, he became the third batsman to have scored 5000 runs in Indian Premier League.
However, after playing a sensation knock of 70 runs off 45 balls, Rohit departed at a crucial juncture in the game. Interestingly, what followed was mayhem from the destructive duo of Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya. Both the batsmen fired on all cylinders as they added close to 70 runs in the last four overs. Mumbai Indians posted a mammoth 191-run total in 20 overs. Kieron Pollard played another fine knock of 47 runs off 20 balls, while Hardik Pandya stayed unbeaten at 30 off 11 balls.
KXIP got to a steady start, however, Jasprit Bumrah came up with a spectacular delivery to send Agarwal back to the pavilion after making 25. Karun Nair went for a duck, while KL Rahul too couldn’t play a big knock as well. He departed after making 17 off 19.
Nicholas Pooran did play a few solid shots en-route to his 27-ball 47. However, it wasn’t enough to take his side home. The total eventually proved too much for KL Rahul and co. as they managed just 143 in 20 overs.
