IPL 2018: Mumbai Indians Squeeze into Playoffs Spot

The Mumbai Indians and the Kings XI Punjab faced off in an attempt to clinch a berth in the IPL 2018 playoffs. Once again, the winner of the toss elected to bowl, so the Mumbai Indians were put in to bat first. Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis trotted out to the crease, only for Lewis to be sent back for 9 runs. Ishan Kishan was up next and was able to muster 20 runs. Yadav in the meantime scored 27 runs before going down.

Skipper Rohit Sharma last just 10 deliveries, with six runs coming off it. Krunal Pandya picked up the slack with a well-struck 32 runs. But Mumbai’s hero of the day was the big West Indian Kieron Pollard. Pollard finally came to the party with a fine 50 runs, to boost MI’s score. Soon he fell prey to KXIP skipper Ravichandran Ashwin, and Hardik Pandya and Ben Cutting soon followed. Pandya could only muster 6 while Cutting added 4 to his name. Mitchell McClenaghan and Mayank Markande were the last men standing on 11 and 7 runs respectively. Mumbai put up a total of 186 for the loss of 8 wickets.

Soon, it was the Kings XI Punjab’s turn to bat. KL Rahul and Chris Gayle walked up the the crease to set the ball rolling. Gayle perished early, for just 18 runs while Rahul soldiered on. A 46-run cameo from Aaron Finch propelled the scoreboard even higher before he was dismissed.

Marcus Stoinis lasted just 2 deliveries and scored 1 run. Meanwhile, KL Rahul was dismissed for 94 runs, agonisingly close to a century. Axar Patel took the stage and remained on the pitch till the end. Yuvraj Singh was out for just 1 run and Manoj Tiwary survived the ordeal. Unfortunately for KXIP, it was too little too late and Mumbai won by 3 runs to move up to 4th in the IPL table. Mumbai are now closer to the IPL 2018 playoffs.