PRAVEEN Kumar dealt early blows while Bhargav Bhatt polished off the tail as Kings XI Punjab stunned Mumbai Indians by 76 runs to keep their playoff hopes alive in the Indian Premier League (IPL) yesterday.
Put into bat at their home ground, Punjab began in the right earnest before their middle and lower order caved in against Munaf Patel (5-21) and Lasith Malinga (2-24).
Only Shaun Marsh (43) and Dinesh Karthik (31) looked at ease as Punjab managed 163-8 that did not look particularly intimidating against Mumbai’s famed batting line-up.
Kumar (2-19), however, had other ideas as he cheaply removed both Mumbai openers Sachin Tendulkar and Aiden Blizzard to trigger a collapse and left-arm spinner Bhatt (4-22) grabbed three wickets in four balls to skittle out the visitors for 87 in 12.5 overs.
While league leaders Mumbai have already qualified for the next round, Punjab lie ninth and probably need to win all their remaining four matches and hope other results go their way if they are to progress further.
In Hyderabad, Pune Warriors beat Deccan Chargers by six wickets even though they are out of the play-off contentions.
For Pune, Mitchell Marsh (4-25) and Yuvraj Singh (2-17) restricted Deccan to 136-8 and they returned to chase down the target in 18.2 overs.
Openers Manish Pandey (49) and Jesse Ryder (35) gave Pune a flying start and Sourav Ganguly, playing his first match this IPL season after initially being ignored in the players’ auction, remained unbeaten after a run-a-ball 32 to guide them to victory.
Deccan are the only team that have no chance of advancing any further in the competition.
