Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians (205/4 in 19.5 ovs) beat Punjab Kings (200/8 in 20 ovs) by 6 wickets at HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala.
PBKS vs MI: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
Five losses on the trot. Not many would have predicted, in their wildest dreams, that Punjab Kings would find themselves buried this deep in the snow after once sitting pretty at the peak. With 13 points from just seven games, they were breezing towards the playoffs, the air around them thin and exhilarating. But mountains, as any seasoned trekker will tell you, are as treacherous as they are beautiful. Like a snowball that has gathered pace on the way down, Punjab have rolled and rolled, and show no signs of stopping.
Nothing is working. Not the reshuffled personnel, not the change of scenery, not the desperate attempts to rewrite the narrative. A score of 210 against Delhi Capitals was not enough on Monday. On Thursday evening, under the darkening Dharamsala sky, 200 was not enough against Mumbai Indians, who played the role of party poopers with great relish, led this time by a certain Jasprit Bumrah making his captaincy debut.
It was Tilak Varma who truly lit up the mountains. An unbeaten 75 off just 33 deliveries, laced with six sixes and as many boundaries, was the knock that settled the contest. After Ryan Rickelton’s quickfire 48 had set the tone at the top, Tilak took over the heavy lifting without so much as a flicker of anxiety. He read the pace of this mountain pitch like a guide who has walked the trail a hundred times, finding boundaries at will and keeping Mumbai’s march uphill steady and assured. Will Jacks lent muscle at the death, and together they plundered 84 runs in the last six overs, putting the game firmly beyond Punjab’s reach.
PUNJAB’S FREEFALL CONTINUES
While Bumrah’s composed authority with the ball and with the armband on his maiden outing as captain will dominate the Friday morning back pages, Punjab Kings’ unravelling is the grimmer, more compelling story. They are now in real danger of falling out of the top four if Chennai Super Kings beat Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on Friday.
The numbers tell a flattering lie. Eight scores of over 200 this season, and yet here they are, skidding. The batting unit that papered over the cracks of an ordinary bowling attack in the first half of the season can no longer carry the load alone. On Thursday, it was the bowling that buckled under the mountain air. At the death, Punjab Kings perished without so much as a parting shot. Marco Jansen haemorrhaged 22 runs in the 18th over. Before that, Yuzvendra Chahal, who had been magnificent through three overs, was taken to the cleaners in the 16th as Tilak and Sherfane Rutherford plundered 20 off the leg-spinner without mercy.
Plenty of searching questions will echo around the dressing room as Punjab Kings try to make sense of this slide. They have one more match in the mountains, but it already carries the weight of an uphill climb, with table-toppers Royal Challengers Bengaluru arriving in Dharamsala on Sunday.
SHARDUL THAKUR RETURNS IN STYLE
Earlier in the evening, Punjab Kings had clawed their way to 201 largely on the back of a spirited lower-order assault. The decision to play Azmatullah Omarzai in place of Marcus Stoinis had raised eyebrows in the stands, but the Afghanistan all-rounder, playing his first game of the season, answered his critics with a brisk 38 off 37 balls, including four sixes.
It had not looked so promising a little earlier. Punjab Kings were in considerable trouble at 147 for 7 at the close of the 17th over. Shardul Thakur, recalled to the XI in place of Allah Ghazanfar, had been outstanding, making intelligent, combative use of the conditions at the HPCA Stadium to dismantle Punjab’s middle order.
But Omarzai had other ideas. Deepak Chahar, tidy and controlled through his first three overs, conceding just 17, came unstuck in his final over at the worst possible moment. The full toss on the pads that started the carnage said it all. What followed was merciless: a fuller delivery launched into the crowd, then a wide yorker that went badly wrong and was dispatched over sweeper cover. Nineteen runs off the over, and the complexion of the innings had changed entirely. Omarzai fell on the final ball, but the damage was done.
From there, Punjab Kings found unexpected allies. Vishnu Vinod, the wicketkeeper-batter from Kerala, was pushed in as a pinch-hitting Impact Player ahead of Harpreet Brar, a gamble that paid handsome dividends. He struck a boundary and a six off Corbin Bosch in the 19th over, and when Xavier Bartlett arrived to swing lustily for two more big blows, 22 runs had come from that over alone. The final over, bowled by Bumrah, yielded 12. From the edge of the precipice, Punjab Kings had scrambled to 201.
It would not be enough.
CAPTAIN BUMRAH SHINES
Bumrah himself did not take a wicket on the night, but his presence as captain was quiet and purposeful, a steady hand directing traffic from mid-off, orchestrating a bowling attack built around the complementary skills of Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.
Deepak drew first blood, removing the dangerous Priyansh Arya in the final over of the powerplay. Going around the wicket, he found the angle to bring one in sharply and rattle the stumps. Priyansh had been looking in ominous touch, but was beaten by a smart, premeditated piece of bowling for 22.
Prabhsimran Singh, meanwhile, was getting every bit of fortune the mountain gods could spare. Dropped on 5 by Naman Dhir off Bumrah, and again on 27 by Corbin Bosch, he refused to squander either gift. He found his groove against uncapped spinner Raghu Sharma in the 10th over, and began to look like the batter who had carried Punjab with such authority at the start of the season, before form and confidence had both quietly deserted him.
Then Shardul Thakur produced a delivery that deserved a far grander fate. Prabhsimran swung hard, got a thick outside edge, and watched the ball die somewhere inside the 30-yard circle. One of those Shardul things. The bowler pumped his fist and went looking for more. He found it almost immediately, a cross seamer that skidded off the surface and clipped the top of off-stump, sending Shreyas Iyer back to the pavilion for just 4, bamboozled and bereft.
Raj Angad Bawa, retained in the XI despite a difficult evening in Raipur against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, then produced perhaps the delivery of the match. A cross seamer, pitched on a length, that skidded and held its line to remove Cooper Connolly for 21, just as the Punjab batter was beginning to look dangerous. Bumrah, who had spent much of the evening whispering encouragement and instruction to Bawa from mid-off, beamed. It had the look of a well-laid trap.
Shardul then removed the promising Suryansh Shedge before Corbin Bosch trapped a becalmed Shashank Singh in front in the 15th over. Shashank, a middle-order pillar of some repute last season, has managed just 76 runs all campaign, and looked every bit a man carrying that burden as he trudged off. Shardul rounded off the demolition by castling Marco Jansen with one that kept a touch low and asked no questions the batter could answer.
From a promising 107 for 1, Punjab Kings had crumbled to 140 for 7. The late blitz dragged them to 201. The mountains, on this occasion, offered no shelter.
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