King XI Punjab denied Mumbai Indians a second successive win on the road by beating the three-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions by 8 wickets at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Saturday. KL Rahul top-scored with an unbeaten 71, while Quinton de Kock was our highest run-getter (60) on the day.

Chasing 177 to win, Kings XI Punjab were on their way with Chris Gayle doing most of the damage early on before Krunal Pandya got the big-hitting Jamaican’s’ wicket in the eight over. Gayle’s departure didn’t seem to affect Punjab too much thanks to Mayank Agarwal, who came to crease and wasted no time in taking the attack to our bowlers.

Agarwal, in fact, looked in terrific touch and played a good knock of 43 from 21 balls. Krunal though ensured Agarwal had to return to the dugout after the KXIP batsman was caught and bowled by him for his second wicket of the night in the 14th over.

The following over proved to be expensive for MI as Hardik Pandya conceded 19 runs while bowling to Rahul and David Miller. Rahul soon brought up his fifty as the hosts edged towards the target comfortably. The Kings XI opener grew in confidence after his half-century and began to find the boundary ropes at will. The winning runs though came off Miller’s bat in the penultimate over of the game.   

Earlier in the evening, Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock had given us a good start, reaching 50 in just the fifth over. However, the two quick dismissals of Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav meant that de Kock and Yuvraj Singh had to steady the ship. The loss of Rohit was, especially, disheartening considering the umpire’s LBW decision would have been overturned had our skipper opted to call for a review.

Having said that, the two left-handers did well and put on a 50-plus partnership as de Kock also reached his half-century. At this stage, MI were looking good to reach 200, but the loss of both de Kock and Yuvraj in quick succession meant that all-rounders Kieron Pollard and Hardik had to regroup again.

Pollard tried to attack Punjab’s bowlers at the start of the 18th over but his attempt at clearing the boundary ropes was off the mark by inches, giving Punjab their fifth wicket and bringing out Krunal to join younger brother Hardik in the middle.

Krunal’s time at the crease was short, but he did hit two fours before perishing. With Mitchell McClenaghan now at the other end, Hardik decided to take on the onus of getting most of the runs for Mumbai. Unfortunately, after a four and a maximum, Hardik fell at deep midwicket trying to hit another six as we ended our innings on 176 for 7.

Brief score: Mumbai Indians 176 for 7 in 20 overs (de Kock 60; Murugan Ashwin 2/25) lost to Kings XI Punjab 177 for 2 in 18.4 overs (Rahul 71*; Krunal 2/43) by 8 wickets

Man of the Match: Mayank Agarwal

Our next match will be against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.