Krunal Pandya cameo keeps Mumbai Indians alive with 6-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab

Riding Suryakumar Yadav’s fifty and a cameo from Krunal Pandya, Mumbai Indians defeated Kings XI Punjab by six wickets in the Indian Premier League at the Holkar Stadium, Indore on Friday. (KXIP vs MI UPDATES)

The win kept MI’s hopes of qualifying for the playoffs alive as one more defeat would have meant the end of the road for the defending champions. (KXIP vs MI SCORECARD)

While it was disciplined show from MI bowlers, especially Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell McClenaghan early on, their batsmen continued the good work and played crucial knocks to seal the deal with six balls to spare.

Yadav, Krunal on fire

Chasing 175, openers Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis got MI off to a decent start, putting on a 38-run stand before spinner Mujeeb Zadran removed Lewis.

Yadav, MI’s best batsman in the tournament so far then formed an alliance with Ishan Kishan and kept the visitors’ chase on track. The duo put on a 42-run stand and in process, Yadav brought up his fifty off 34 balls.

He looked set for a big score before falling to Marcus Stoinis in the very next over. It was a knuckle ball from the Australian and Yadav (57) wanted to play it across the line but got a leading edge and Rahul did the rest.

Kishan (25), who smacked three sixes after a slow start, became Mujeeb’s second victim of the night. A flatter delivery from Mujeeb, the MI no 3 charged down the track, looking to slog but missed it completely.

After Hardik Pandya fell in the 15th over, skipper Rohit Sharma (24*) and Krunal (31*) put together a quickfire 56-run stand in 3.3 overs to hand MI their third win. Earlier, Gayle’s fourth fifty-plus score in five IPL games this year and a Stoinis special guided KXIP to 174/6.

Early into his innings, Gayle was kept in check by Jasprit Bumrah, who targeted the KXIP opener with slower deliveries. He scored just a run off his first eight balls before getting into the act with consecutive boundaries off Hardik in the fourth over.

Gayle reached his fifty with a single off Ben Cutting in the 11th over. He got out for 50 in the same over, trying to clear the deep mid-wicket region but handing a straight catch to Suryakumar Yadav.

With 89/2 in 12 overs, the stage was set for KXIP’s middle-order to take the team to a big total. But they floundered as a mix-up with Karun Nair had Yuvraj Singh (14) run-out in the 13th over.

Nair (23) looked in good touch before becoming Mitchell McClenaghan’s only victim of the night.