April 26, 2012
Scorecard: Mumbai Indians 171 for 6 (Sharma 50, Awana 3-39) beat Kings XI Punjab 168 for 3 (Hussey 68*, Miller 34*) by four wickets
April 26, 2012
Scorecard: Mumbai Indians 171 for 6 (Sharma 50, Awana 3-39) beat Kings XI Punjab 168 for 3 (Hussey 68*, Miller 34*) by four wickets
Piyush Chawla will remember his last over of the match against Mumbai Indians that he bowled in front of his home crowd, not for long but at least for this season. It was the over that changed the entire course of the match and cost the hosts Punjab a certain win against their opponents, Mumbai Indians.
Needing 32 runs from 12 deliveries, the hosts were all but certain of a comfortable win as they had already removed dangerous Rohit Sharma who once again was looking certain to lead his team out of trouble with an impressive knock of 50 runs. Parvinder Awana’s last over of the match and he got the important wicket of Rohit and then removed Harbhajan Singh for a duck. The equation was favouring the home team as Ambati Rayudu and new batsman Robin Peterson walked in.
Hussey threw the ball to Piyush Chawla to bowl the penultimate over of the match. Little did they know what Peterson had in mind as he audaciously switched his stance on the very first ball of the over to send the ball towards third man for a boundary. Second ball was dropped short and Peterson smashed it to deep extra cover for another boundary. In came Chawla again and Peterson dismissed him for a six over deep midwicket. The fourth was reverse sweeped for a single and this brought Rayudu on strike. He too joined the party with a big hit over long off and then worsened Chawla’s figure with another big hit over long on.
The over went for 27 runs and Mumbai needed just 5 runs from the last over. Fittingly, the winning stroke, a boundary, came off the bat of Rayudu who remained unbeaten on 34 (17b, 2X4, 2X6) along with Peterson 16 (7b, 2X4, 1X6). Earlier, KXIP riding on their skipper David Hussey’s 68* and a strokeful innings from David Miller (34*) posted a competitive total of 168/3 in their allotted 20 overs. Going by their first 10 overs, it was a brilliant comeback as they were 79/3 in 12.5 overs at one stage.
Hussey and Miller collected 89 runs in 43 balls taking full advantage of the poor length and full toss deliveries from Mumbai Indians’ bowlers. It was also inexplicable why Harbhajan didn’t bring Robin Peterson back into the attack after opening the proceedings with him. He gave away just 3 runs.
Mumbai Indians had a sedate start to their innings with their openers collecting 52 runs in 7.4 overs. Things started falling out of place for them once the openers departed and the blowers tightened the noose further as the innings progressed. Parvinder Awana was the pick of their bowlers taking three wickets while Azhar Mahmood took two wickets while giving away just 23 runs.
Courtesy: cricketnext
