Ashutosh blinder not enough as Kings fall short in IPL classic

Mumbai Indians 192 for 7 (Suryakumar 78, Harshal 3-31) beat Punjab Kings 183 all out (Ashutosh 61, Shashank 41, Bumrah 3-21) by nine runs

Ashutosh Sharma‘s heroic 28-ball 61 went in vain as Punjab Kings suffered yet another close defeat in IPL 2024, this time going down to Mumbai Indians in Mullanpur by nine runs.
Early in the chase, Kings were at the risk of being bundled out cheaply when Jasprit Bumrah and Gerald Coetzee combined to leave the hosts 14 for 4 in 2.1 overs. Soon that became 77 for 6. But Ashutosh – and Shashank Singh with a 25-ball 41 – injected life into the contest.

With three overs to go, Kings needed only 25 runs more. However, Ashutosh fell at the start of the 18th over, and Mumbai never let that advantage go. Kings were all out in the final over to suffer their fourth final-over defeat of the season, their fifth loss in all, as Mumbai climbed from ninth to seventh on the table.

Bumrah, Coetzee bowl thunderbolts

Kings were on the mat early in the 193 chase when Coetzee had Prabhsimran Singh caught behind down the leg side in the first over. From the other side, Bumrah took the new ball and struck right away, removing franchise debutant Rilee Rossouw for a duck and the new opener Sam Curran for 6.

Liam Livingstone, batting at No. 4, then lasted two balls when his attempted pull off a 150kph Coetzee delivery was sliced back to the bowler. A score of 14 for 4 soon became 49 for 5 when Harpreet Singh Bhatia was caught by legspinner Shreyas Gopal, which then became 77 for 6 when Jitesh Sharma was lbw for nine by Akash Madhwal.

Full report to follow

Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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