Harbhajan Singh lit up the Wankhede Stadium with his spectacular spin bowling as well as dazzling strokeplay. Still, the Turbanator’s exploits, ably backed by debutant J Suchith, were not enough to hand Mumbai Indians their maiden victory of the season.

A clinical performance by Kings XI Punjab unit for most of the match resulted in a 19-run victory for the visitors. The outcome meant Mumbai Indians were still to open their account this season after the first two games.

Chasing a target of 178, when Harbhajan joined Suchith at the crease, Mumbai Indians were reduced to 59 for six in the 14th over. With 119 runs required off just 38 balls, the fate of the game was as good as sealed. Besides, Mumbai Indians were in danger of being bowled out for their lowest total. Then started the Harbhajan-Suchith show.

Both the spinners had earlier starred with the ball and pulled the brakes on the Kings XI innings when the openers were threatening to take the game away from Mumbai Indians. The duo then combined with the willow to come up with one of the most memorable partnerships in the IPL history.

By the time Harbhajan perished off the penultimate ball of the game, the duo had added 100 runs off just 37 balls. In fact, with 19 runs required off the last three balls, Mumbai Indians had a glimmer of hope of Harbhajan; who had already registered the fastest fifty by a Mumbai Indians batsman, pulling off a miraculous tie and forcing a super over. But that wasn’t to be.

Anureet Singh bowled good three balls to end the match without any real scare for his team. Except for the last six overs, which saw Harbhajan and Suchith combined to plunder nine fours and eight sixes, the Kings XI were in control all through the innings. Had the Mumbai Indians top order supported the lower order batsmen a little bit, Mumbai Indians could well have overhauled the target. Once the top three – Rohit Sharma, Aaron Finch and Aditya Tare – perished for single-digit scores in the Powerplay overs, the chase was as good as over for Mumbai Indians.

Both the teams entered the game on the back of losing their respective opening match of the season. Still, Mumbai Indians had the advantage on two counts. They hadn’t lost any of their two games against Kings XI Punjab last year. Moreover, they had lost just one of their home games in the last two IPL editions.

That didn’t help on Sunday as Mumbai Indians were outplayed by an all-round Kings XI unit. Mumbai Indians made two changes to the team that lost to Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on Wednesday. Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and medium-pacer Jasprit Bumrah made way for left-arm spinner J Suchith and left-arm pacer Pawan Suyal.

And both the replacements justified their selection. Suyal bowled three exceptional overs, two up front followed by the last over to keep an on-song Kings XI batting line-up in check. Despite Suyal’s good work, Virender Sehwag and M Vijay went after R Vinay Kumar at the other end to get Kings off to a rollicking start.

Suchith, who became the 83rd cricketer to don the Mumbai Indians colours, combined well with Harbhajan, who was undoubtedly the player of the match for MI, to pull things back for MI. While Harbhajan accounted for both the openers, Suchith marked his debut with the prize scalp of Glenn Maxwell.

Kings XI skipper George Bailey then took the game away from Mumbai Indians with an unbeaten knock of 32-ball 61. In the latter half, Harbhajan overshadowed even Bailey’s whirlwind knock. In the end, that wasn’t really to see Mumbai Indians home.