Mohali, India, May 3 (AFP\/APP): Indian stars Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav smashed blistering half-centuries to help Mumbai Indians chase down 215 in a six-wicket IPL win over Punjab Kings on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Kishan (75) and Suryakumar (66) put on a key third-wicket partnership of 116 before Tim David and Tilak Varma steered the team home with seven balls to spare in the second match of the day in Mohali.<\/p>\n
Varma smashed the winning six in his 10-ball 26, and David, who starred in his team’s previous match, made 19 as the two combined in an unbeaten stand of 38.<\/p>\n
“When we started T20 format, 140-150 was a winning score. But look at this one,” Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma said.<\/p>\n
“Plus one extra batter makes a huge difference as well. Not just to us but across the IPL. I just checked that the average score this IPL is 180.”<\/p>\n
The batting effort boosted Mumbai’s chances of making the play-offs and trumped an unbeaten 82 by Punjab’s Liam Livingstone.<\/p>\n
Mumbai switched places with Punjab to be sixth in the 10-team table led by holders Gujarat Titans.<\/p>\n
Rohit went for a duck in the first over of Mumbai’s chase and impact sub Nathan Ellis sent back fellow Australian Cameron Green for 23.<\/p>\n
The left-handed Kishan, who was named man of the match, and Suryakumar, who has recently hit form after a bad start this season, turned the match around with a flurry of fours and sixes.<\/p>\n
Suryakumar raised his second successive fifty in 23 balls with two sixes and two fours off Punjab’s expensive England import Sam Curran.<\/p>\n
– Livingstone blitz in vain –<\/p>\n
Arshdeep Singh cut short Suryakumar’s stay with a leaping catch at short third-man off Ellis and then sent back Kishan with his left-arm pace bowling but leaked 66 runs.<\/p>\n
Varma and David once again ensured a second straight win for the IPL powerhouse with five titles.<\/p>\n
“We should have bowled tighter lines,” Punjab skipper Shikhar Dhawan said.<\/p>\n
“Because we saw the wicket and saw it’s a very good wicket, we thought change of pace will work a lot and I feel Nathan bowled really well but other bowlers didn’t step up today.”<\/p>\n
Punjab rode on an unbeaten 119-run partnership between Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma (49) to post 214-3.<\/p>\n
Livingstone hit the opposition bowlers to all parts of the ground in his 42-ball knock and was especially severe on England teammate Jofra Archer, hitting the Mumbai pace bowler for three sixes in an over.<\/p>\n
Livingstone later revealed he had lunch with Archer before the game and was prepared for the challenge.<\/p>\n
Archer returned his most expensive IPL figures of 0-56.<\/p>\n
The first match of the day between Lucknow Super Giants and Chennai Super Kings was abandoned due to rain in the north Indian city of Lucknow.<\/p>\n
Lucknow reached 125-7 in 19.2 overs when rain stopped play and after an hour and 40 minutes of waiting, the officials decided the points would be shared between the teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mohali, India, May 3 (AFP\/APP): Indian stars Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav smashed blistering half-centuries to help Mumbai Indians chase down 215 in a six-wicket IPL win over Punjab Kings on Wednesday. Kishan (75) and Suryakumar (66) put on a key third-wicket partnership of 116 […]<\/p>\n
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