Mumbai wrap up tight win after Suryakumar’s 78

Jasprit Bumrah (3/21) and Gerald Coetzee’s (3/32) superb spells coupled with a scintillating 78-run knock from Suryakumar Yadav and brilliant fielding helped Mumbai Indians edge Punjab Kings by nine runs at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur.
MI survived a splendid Ashutosh Sharma (61 off 28) blitz after Suryakumar’s 78 (53) had helped the visitors post 192/7.
Bumrah and Coetzee then sparkled in the second innings, picking up three wickets each to help MI get back to winning ways.
Defending 193, Mumbai Indians got off to a splendid start, reducing Punjab Kings to 14/4 inside the first three overs. It was an eventful start for Coetzee in the first over as Sam Curran cracked a four off the first ball. The MI pacer, however, bounced back off the next ball as he had Prabhsimran Singh strangled down the leg side via a brilliant flying catch from Ishan Kishan.
Bumrah then arrived in style as he cleaned up Riley Rossouw with a spectacular full inswinger. Two balls later, an excellent review had Curran walking back as Bumrah strangled him down the leg side.
Coetzee then made things worse for PBKS, having Liam Livingstone caught and bowled in the next over.
Shashank Singh and Impact Player Harpreet Singh then stabilised things for a brief moment before a splendid diving caught and bowled by Shreyas Gopal sent back Harpreet in the seventh over.
Shashank tried to release some pressure with consecutive sixes off Gopal in the 9th over, but the home side lost another wicket post the Strategic Timeout as Akash Madhwal trapped Jitesh Sharma LBW.
Shashank and Ashutosh Sharma then got together and counter-attacked with a brisk 17-ball 34-run stand. But Hardik Pandya brought back Bumrah and he struck immediately, outfoxing Shashank (41 off 25) with a typical slower one. Ashutosh, though, kept hitting powerful sixes. Harpreet Brar arrived and joined the boundary hitting party as the duo turned tables.
Ashutosh got to his maiden IPL fifty in style, off 23 balls, with a six over long off off Madhwal and then reverse swept the next ball over third man for a six. Brar finished the over in style with a massive six downtown as the pair accumulated 24 runs off the 16th over to bring the equation down to 28 needed off 24. Bumrah came back to bowl a very good 17th over, conceding just three. Then Coetzee had the dangerous Ashutosh (61 off 28) caught at deep mid-wicket off a short delivery off the first ball of the next over to pull things back in MI’s favour.
Coetzee conceded just two runs in the 18th over as the equation came down to 23 needed off 12. Brar and Harshal Patel added four from the first three balls of the 19th over from Pandya, but Brar departed off the fourth ball.
Rabada arrived and hammered the first ball for a six. Twelve runs were needed off the last over. Madhwal started off with a wide. Rabada then pushed the next ball to deep point and set off for a single and then a risky second. Mohamed Nabi, in the deep, though, was up to the task, and he replied with a superb throw.
Kishan, with his quick glovework, disturbed the stumps in a flash as MI set off in exuberant celebrations
Earlier, Suryakumar went on the attack straightaway hitting two fours. At the other end, Rohit Sharma cracked a couple of fours and sixed inside the Powerplay.
Suryakumar upped the ante in the last over of the Powerplay, smashing a four a six off Curran to take the score to 54/1.
The pair brought up the 50-run stand in the ninth over. Suryakumar took up the mantle of acceleration and also unleashed his favourite ‘Supla’ shot as he brought up his fifty off just 34 balls.

BRIEF SCORES
Mumbai Indians 192 for 7 (Suryakumar 78, Harshal 3-31) beat Punjab Kings 183 all out (Ashutosh 61, Shashank 41, Bumrah 3-21) by 9 runs