Kolkata: Kings XI Punjab kept their playoff hopes alive after they put on an wonderful performance to eke out on a 7-run win over table toppers Mumbai Indians in an IPL 10 match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
Home team skipper won the toss and chose to bowl first and this decision backfired big time as openers Martin Guptill(36) and Wriddhiman Saha took the team off to a flying start.
Although Guptill was dismissed when the Punjab score was just 68, Wriddhiman carried on with his splendid batting and ended up making his fans relive that epic moment in the 2014 IPL final where he scored a smashing century against eventual champions Kolkata Knight Riders. This time around, he wasn’t able to reach the three-figure mark as he ended up just seven runs short of his second IPL century.
Saha comes to party
However, his innings was studded with 11 fours and three sixes and he was well supported by skipper Glenn Maxwell (47), Shaun Marsh (25). Punjab ended up scoring the highest total in this year’s IPL.
In reply , Lendl Simmons (59) and Parthiv Patel (38) got the team off to a great start but wickets tumbled pretty quickly as the middle-order failed to perform. But even a 50 not out by Kieron Pollard and big hits by Hardik Pandya (30) saw the Mumbai Indians fall agonizingly short of the Punjab total by just seven runs.
With this win, Punjab would be high on confidence ahead of their important their next match against the Rising Pune Supergiant. Mumbai Indians however are at the top of the table and have already qualified for the playoffs but such losses would definitely create dents in their confidence.
Brief scores
Kings XI Punjab 230/3 (Wriddhiman Saha 93*, Glenn Maxwell 47; Jasprit Bumrah 1/24) beat Mumbai Indians 223/6 (Lendl Simmons 59, Kieron Pollard 50*; Mohit Sharma 2/57) by 7 runs.