Mumbai Indians on Wednesday suffered their fifth straight defeat as the IPL side owned by Mukesh Ambani lost to Punjab Kings.
Batting first, Punjab Kings made 198-5 in 20 overs. Skipper Mayank Agrawal made 52 from 32 deliveries, while Shikhar Dhawan made 70 from 50 balls. Jitesh Sharma took 15 balls to score a quickfire 30 runs.
In response, Mumbai Indians could only make 186-9 in 20 overs. Dewald Brevis was the top scorer with a knock of 49 run from 25 balls, while Suryakumar Yadav made 43 from 30 balls. Tilak Varma chipped in with 36 from 20 balls.
Odean Smith picked up four wickets while Kagiso Rabada took two wickets.
Reflecting on his side’s fifth straight defeat, Rohit Sharma said, “Thought we played well, came pretty close to closing the game, a couple of run-outs didn’t help our cause. At one time, we were cruising along but didn’t hold our nerves, credit to PBKS for bowling well in the second half. We’re trying to play with a different thought process, but it’s not working out well. We aren’t playing good cricket, we need to understand some situations and execute according to it. They got off to a flier and put our bowlers under pressure, but the pitch was good to bat on and I thought 198 was chaseable. As I said earlier, we need to go back to the drawing-room and come back better prepared.”
Mayank Agrawal, who was declared Player Of The Match, said, “It was a good night, very happy to contribute to the team’s win. The crucial thing for us was the two points. There were a lot of crucial moments and more often than not, we were nailing and winning those moments. When the game was 50-50, we won those moments and it came towards us. We want to play aggressive, hard cricket and show a good mindset. Very happy to have three wins and we are playing good cricket overall. If we continue to do that and improve 5-10% every game, we’ll go on to do special things.”
