It was Jasprit Bumrah’s first game as MI captain on Thursday and he led from the front as Tilak Varma’s 75 not out off just 33 balls helped MI beat Punjab Kings by six wickets in IPL.
Mumbai chased down 206 under lights at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, with Varma again top-scoring for them from No. 4 — giving a world-class score to their rarefied batting line-up after slumping to 88-3: within points of being floored by another strong attack despite playing Bumrah on that side since he replaced the injured duo of Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.
Varma hit six sixes. He was joined at the end by Will Jacks (25 not out).
Punjab, who slumped to 200-8 after losing three wickets for nine runs in the middle of their innings on Shadul Thakur’s 4-39, had earlier recovered from a disappointing start.
Despite 38 runs scored by Azmatullah Omarzai off 17 balls for the Kings to turnaround the game, they did not have enough in the end.
Punjab, struggling to hang on to a top four spot, suffered their fifth consecutive defeat and must win both of their remaining games if they are to qualify for the knockouts. Mumbai, having secured four wins in 12 matches, are at ninth.
Opting to bat, Punjab started quickly with its openers adding 50 runs in 33 deliveries.
Prabhsimran Singh who has facing a backlash online for being “overweight”, responded by hammering four sixes to score 50 off 29 balls. And he was ably supported by Cooper Connolly (21) as they put on 57 off just 35 balls.
Thakur had picked up four wickets in just three overs before he hit the brakes.
He dismissed Prabhsimran Singh in the 12th over, and took out skipper Shreyas Iyer two balls later.
Raj Bawa bowled Connolly on the sixth ball, meaning Punjab have yet to concede a run. They were bundled out for 140-7 after losing six wickets for just 33 runs.
An explosive finish saw Punjab feast on 63 runs off the last three overs to reach 200. Bartlett finished with 22 and then 12 off the final two – Omarzai hit four sixes between them off the back end of their innings, while Bartlett struck 19 runs in the 18th over.
Skipper Bumrah was wicketless, giving away 35 runs in his four overs
Mumbai came out all guns blazing with Ryan Rickelton hitting a stunning 48 off just 23 balls, including four sixes. With Rohit Sharma (25), he scored 61 off 39 balls.
Varma had added 61 with Rickelton before Omarzai dismissed both of them, first for 20 and then Sherfane Rutherford for a duck as well.
Yuzvendra Chahal ‘s 1 for 16 bowling from an impactful first spell of wrist spin on a slowing Dharamsala wicket was effectively purged when Varma unleashed a fury with an unbeaten 50 off just 25 balls.
Varma and Jacks brought up 56 off the last 20 balls to win