Singhs are king at Wankhede

MI VS PBKS (PC- BCCI)

In the end, Punjab Kings made short work of a victory target of 196. Arshdeep Singh set it up for them, and Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer did the rest. They won by 7 wickets with 21 balls to spare. MI suffered their fourth straight defeat and went deeper into the mire

Bend it like Arshdeep

Arshdeep came into this game with an economy rate of 10.5 and just two wickets over the first four matches in this IPL. At Wankhede Stadium, he found his swing. In fact, he moved the ball in the air and off the deck. His first over was a thing of beauty. Ryan Rickelton was a sitting duck.

The first ball shaped away and beat the outside edge. A delivery later, the MI opener was beaten again by late swing. Arshdeep bowled fuller and beat the outside edge again. Rickelton was struggling to lay a bat to ball. In his next over, Arshdeep put the southpaw out of his misery to reach 100 IPL wickets. Off the next ball, he accounted for Suryakumar Yadav, moving it away from the right-hander and inducing an edge. The horrid run continued for India’s T20I captain. The spell, on the other hand, marked a welcome return to form for Arshdeep.
At the pre-match press conference, questions on Arshdeep’s struggles were asked and Nehal Wadhera had to defend his teammate. After his first spell today, the seamer’s figures read: 2-0-4-0. At the death, Arshdeep yorked Sherfane Rutherford to return with 2/33 from his four overs. Form is temporary, quality is permanent.

Chahal bungles big-time

After losing a couple of early wickets, MI laboured to 25/2 at the end of the fourth over. Then, in the second ball of the fifth over, Yuzvendra Chahal dropped an absolute sitter to give Naman Dhir a reprieve when he was on 10. He tried to scoop Marco Jansen but made a meal of it. Chahal was expected to take that catch even blindfolded. He dropped it. MI were 27/2 then. Dhir went on to score 50 off 31 balls, adding 122 runs with Quinton de Kock for the third wicket in the process.
The night got worse for Chahal. Dhir welcomed him with a straight six before de Kock took over. A six and a four followed. The leggie looked clueless and bowled a big wide. Shreyas promptly took him out of the attack. Chahal continued to leak runs in his second spell as well, conceding 45 in three overs without a wicket. Overall, Punjab Kings’ fielding during the early part of the MI innings wasn’t good either. Shreyas missed two easy run-outs, although the skipper made up for it with a worldie on the boundary line to remove Hardik Pandya.

Veni, Quiny, vici

He returned to the MI fold after five years for his base price of Rs 1 crore at the auction. De Kock played this game because Rohit Sharma was injured. The first ball he faced – a length delivery from Jansen – the opener hit it over cover for a six. That set the tone of a gorgeous innings – an unbeaten 112 off 60 balls that had eight fours and seven sixes. It was his third IPL hundred, each one coming for a different team. He was the first overseas player to do it. Veni, ‘Quiny’, vici.

Prabhsimran shines the brightest

The Wankhede pitch for this game was a little different from the first two matches at this venue. It had something for the bowlers. MI brought in Allah Ghazanfar as an Impact Sub at the expense of Surya. The spinner removed Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly in the powerplay. MI’s total was about 20 runs short, but early success made the door ajar for them. That was when Jasprit Bumrah dropped Prabhsimran at backward point off Pandya. As it turned out, he dropped the match. The opener went on score 80 off 39 balls. For three seasons on the spin, he has been scoring at a strike-rate north of 150. Some of the shots that Prabhsimran played, against Bumrah and Pandya, were extraordinary.
At the other end, Shreyas was a leader personified. The skipper didn’t mind playing second fiddle to the opener. The two put on 100 runs off 51 balls. Game over.
Yet again, Bumrah went wicketless, giving away 41 runs in his four overs. Fatigue?

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