Aaditya Nair
19th October 2020
Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians played at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, 18th October 2020.Match 35 and 36 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) set a new record of having two tied games and three super over deciders being played in a day. The doubleheaders on Sunday were a feast for cricket fans all over the world. In the second match, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) took on Mumbai Indians (MI). Having won the toss, Rohit Sharma put the opposition to bat first, but Mumbai Indians lost their skipper early. Quinton de Cock, his South African counterpart, played a responsible inning of 53 runs from 43 balls to steady the ship. But with regular wickets, KXIP kept striking back, but with some late blitz from Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians put up a good score of 176 on the board. For KXIP, both Mohammad Shami and Arshdeep Singh picked two wickets each.
KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma on the field (Source: The Hindu)
KXIP started on a positive note but lost the wicket of their opener, Mayank Agarwal, early. They lost wickets regularly, but their captain KL Rahul, who is also the highest run-getter of the tournament, kept getting better. With a powerful knock of 77 runs of 51 balls, he was looking to take his team home when Jasprit Bumrah, arguably the best bowler in International Cricket, bowled a magical spell. The 18th over from Bumrah took the crucial wicket of the batsmen who played well and gave away only four runs. The KXIP needed 22 off the last two and managed only 21 and tied their score with MI. The MI bowlers bowled out of their skins to tie the match when KXIP looked comfortable to win the match.
The super over that was bowled to both teams, the first time in international cricket also ended up being a tie. First, Bumrah bowled exceptionally well to restrict the KXIP to just six runs, and then Shami managed to tie up MI batsmen to the same score in the super over. With the new ICC rules, the teams would now play another super over to decide the winner of the match, but the batsmen and the bowlers used by the respective teams couldn’t be used for the second super over.
Chris Jordan bowled the super over for KXIP, and with an amazing effort from Mayank at the boundary line, MI put 11 runs on board for KXIP to chase. Mayank and Chris Gayle, who batted in the super over for KXIP, made short work of the chase and scored the runs with a boundary each in four balls bowled by Trent Boult for MI.
KXIP was struggling to find its feet in the tournament but managed to get away with two points to keep their chances for the knockout stages of the tournament alive. MI, sitting comfortably at the top of the points table, will not be affected hugely by the loss.
(Sources: The Hindu, IPL)
Edited by: Ritish