New Delhi:
Kings XI Punjab on Friday host Mumbai Indians at their new home ground - Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore in the Indian Premier League.
Ashwin-led Punjab are 4th on the points table with 10 points, whereas the defending champions Mumbai Indians are having a horrible season, lying bottom of the table with just 4 points.
Rohit Sharma and MI would like to play party spoiler for other teams from now and a win over Punjab would start their new phase.
Head to head stats are equal with both the teams winning 10 games each.
Interesting face off: Rohit vs Ashwin: Rohit has scored only 46 runs from the 47 deliveries he faced from Ashwin getting out once in the exchange.
HIGHLIGHTS:
# Suryakumar Yadav is the Man of the Match: I am enjoying my new role, opening the innings for Mumbai Indians. Pushing it really hard every game, trying to give good starts so that it helps the team to set good totals. Also while chasing, we need to begin well to ease the pressure off the others in the middle order. (On his plans as an opener) I am not thinking too much, trying to keep it simple. Trying to play my natural game opening the innings, not trying too many things. Feeling really good and trying to improve my game as time goes by. Would like to finish games off too.
# Rohit Sharma: I think we are still alive. Good performance tonight. Much needed for us. We needed everyone to come and put a collective effort. We started well with the ball. To restrict their batting unit on this pitch at this ground was a great effort. And to chase it down the way we did was really nice. Wasn't really easy early on but we knew that we had a lot of depth in our batting. The way we went about our chase in the first 10 overs and I felt we needed momentum. So, Hardik the way he plays was suited to do that. We've been giving too many at the death but that's how the game goes. I had to bring Jasprit in the 19th over with two set batsmen and if he struck, would have made things easier for Hardik. Plus the longer boundaries would have helped Hardik in the 20th over. That's how it goes sometimes. I have to use Jasprit really well and the others around him are doing the job for us. It's about being really smart with the ball.
# Krunal Pandya: Not at all (when asked about family competitiveness). When he (Hardik) is playing I feel the pressure. When I am playing, he feels pressure outside. That brotherly bond is there. We have been in winning positions before in the last few games and finally, we have won today. Feels good that I contributed with the bat. Anything is chaseable here because the ground is small. As a batsman you get that extra confidence because even the mishits go over the ropes. The chat with Rohit was simple, he was also striking the ball well. I was keeping a solid base and it paid off.
# Ashwin: I thought the wicket was a bit sticky, said the same during the toss. We played pretty well, but didn't get enough runs in the end. If not for Stoinis, we wouldn't have got 174. We fought well, if a few things had gone our way, we might have ended as winners. We bowled pretty well, but this wasn't our night. Not really (if the week's break cost them the momentum), it's just a perception, the week off didn't hurt us. Captaincy brings a lot of responsibility, so far so good. 6 games to go, it's not about getting 3 wins, if we play the brand of cricket that we are playing, we should do good.
HIGHLIGHTS
# Mumbai Indians win by 6 wickets
# 18.6 Overs: FOUR! And MI win by 6 wickets. Massive victory for them.
# 18.3 Overs: SIX! OMG its the biggest of the night. MI 170/4
# 18.2 Overs: FOUR! Krunal Panday gets it perfectly. MI 164/4
# 17.6 Overs: SIX! Oh my my! Rohit is looking to end this early. MI 159/4
# 17.5 Overs: FOUR! Back to back boundaries by Hitman! MI 153/4
# 17.2 Overs: FOUR! Stylish shot by Rohit! MI 144/4
# 16.1 Overs: SIX! A much needed one for MI as Rohit tonks it over. MI 131/4
# 15.3 Overs: OUT! Pandya departs...Hardik Pandya b Andrew Tye 23(13) MI 120/4
# 12.6 Overs: OUT! Kishan walks back..Ishan Kishan b Mujeeb 25(19) MI 100/3
# 12.5 Overs: SIX! Kishan goes big and thats a massive hit! HUGE! MI 100/2
# 12.3 Overs: FOUR! Hardik joins the party. MI 93/2
# 11.4 Overs: OUT! Marcus Stoinis is doing the damage here. Big blow for MI as Yadav departs.Suryakumar Yadav c Rahul b Stoinis 57(42) MI 80/2
# 8.1 Overs: FOUR! Yadav goes straight down the ground. MI 53/1
# 7.1 Overs: FOUR! Yadav is on fire! MI 44/1
# 5.4 Overs: OUT! Mujeeb strikes. Lewis c Rahul b Mujeeb 10(13) MI 38/1
# 4.1 Overs: FOUR! Classy cover drive by Yadav. MI 36/0
# 3.4 Overs: FOUR! Yadav is not leaving those. MI 31/0
# 3.2 Overs: FOUR! Suryakumar has completed his warm up! MI 27/0
# After 2 Overs MI are 13/0
# Mumbai Indians need 175 to win!
# 19.6 Overs: SIX! first a four then a six to end the innings. KXIP 174/6
# 19.2 Overs: FOUR! Stoines slaps it hard for a boundary. KXIP 163/5
# 19.1 Overs: SIX! Stoinis tonks it over. KXIP 159/5
# 17.5 Overs: SIX! Mayank Agarwal hits it straight. KXIP 145/5
# 15.6 Overs: OUT! Big blow, Nair walks back. Nair c Hardik Pandya b McClenaghan 23(12) KXIP 132/4
# 15.2 Overs: SIX! Nair on fire! KXIP 130/3
# 13.3 Overs: FOUR! Nair flicks it over the keeper. KXIP 104/3
# 12.3 Overs: OUT! Yuvi walks back, terrible terrible run out. Yuvraj run out (Lewis/Ishan Kishan) 14(14) KXIP 96/3
# 11.4 Overs: OUT! Gayle Storm ends here. Gayle c Suryakumar Yadav b Cutting 50(40) KXIP 88/2
# 9.4 Overs: FOUR! Gayle special! KXIP 78/1
# 8.5 Overs: FOUR! Gayle takes full advantage of poor delivery. KXIP 70/1
# 8.4 Overs: SIX! Gayle goes big! KXIP 66/1
# After 7.3 Overs KXIP are 57/1
# Kings XI Punjab (Playing XI): Lokesh Rahul(w), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Axar Patel, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman
# Mumbai Indians
