Mumbai Indians (MI) finally got back to the winning tracks after facing 3 consecutive losses by defeating Punjab Kings on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. With the 6-wickets win against Punjab in the 42nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, MI finally reached the 5th position in the points table. They are just behind the KKR despite having the same points, due to their lower run rate.
Even though PBKS could not give the defending champions a huge target, the team MI initially struggled with the sub-par batting performance from their top batsmen. They only managed to score 61 for 3 in the first 10 overs of the match. However, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard and Saurabh Tiwary played fantastic knocks in the death overs, chasing down the 136-runs target in 19 overs.
Hardik (40 not out) and Pollard (15 not out) finished the match with their fantastic partnership of 45 runs. Tiwary looked quite comfortable with the bat in the match and stitched two important partnerships with Quinton de Kock (27) and Pandya. He remained the top scorer of the match with 45 off 37 balls.
Mumbai Indians on Tuesday dropped their star batsman Ishan Kishan following his low scores in the IPL 2021. Despite their win against PBKS, legendary West Indies batsman Brian Lara shared his concern about the performance of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan. He said, “For me, those guys have to be a little bit more professional now and try to help their team win the tournament. Forget the World Cup, this is your job now to get Mi back into the tournament.”
Keeping the same tone, former Indian opener Akash Chopra reminded that their poor performance could result in their exclusion from the Indian T20 World Cup squad as the selectors can make changes till October 10. He remarked, “While that Indian selection has happened, don’t take it for granted that there are no changes happening.” “Surykumar Yadav, please buckle up and pull up your socks. If you don’t get runs, in the end, there is nothing that is stopping the Indian selectors from changing the team,” he continued.
The match vs PBKS was also a landmark for the 34-year old all-rounder Pollard as he became the first player to score 10,000 runs and 300 wickets in the history of T20 after taking the wicket of KL Rahul.
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