Ashutosh blinder not enough as Kings fall short in IPL classic

Ashutosh Sharma's heroic 28-ball 61 went in vain as Punjab Kings suffered yet another close defeat in IPL 2024, this time going down to Mumbai Indians in Mullanpur by nine runs.

Early in the chase, Kings were at the risk of being bundled out cheaply when Jasprit Bumrah and Gerald Coetzee combined to leave the hosts 14 for 4 in 2.1 overs. Soon that became 77 for 6. But Ashutosh - and Shashank Singh with a 25-ball 41 - injected life into the contest.

With three overs to go, Kings needed only 25 runs more. However, Ashutosh fell at the start of the 18th over, and Mumbai never let that advantage go. Kings suffered their fourth final-over defeat of the season, and their fifth loss in all, as Mumbai climbed from ninth to seventh on the table.

Kings were on the mat early in their chase of 193 when Coetzee had Prabhsimran Singh caught behind down the leg side in the first over. At the other end, Bumrah took the new ball and struck right away, removing franchise debutant Rilee Rossouw for a duck and the new opener Sam Curran for 6.

Liam Livingstone, batting at No. 4, then lasted two balls when his attempted pull off a 150kph Coetzee delivery was sliced back to the bowler. A score of 14 for 4 soon became 49 for 5 when Harpreet Singh Bhatia was caught by legspinner Shreyas Gopal, and then became 77 for 6 when Jitesh Sharma was lbw for nine by Madhwal.

By the time Ashutosh walked in, Shashank had already kept Kings' score moving with the occasional boundary. Shashank pumped three sixes and two fours to make 41 in 25 balls from No. 6, but it was only when Ashutosh joined him that runs flowed from both ends.

Ashutosh hammered Madhwal for a six over fine leg in the tenth over and then took Romario Shepherd for four and six in the 11th. He clubbed Hardik Pandya for a six in the 12th too, and even after Bumrah had dismissed Shashank in the 13th, he swept the fast bowler for an audacious six in the same over. Ashutosh and Harpreet Brar then took Coetzee for a 13-run 15th over as they made 65 runs in that five-over period.

But it was the 16th over that took Kings ahead in the game for the first time in the chase. Madhwal missed his lengths and Ashutosh punished him with consecutive sixes. Harpreet smacked another six to bring the equation down to 28 off four overs.

The required run-rate of only seven gave Ashutosh and Harpreet the breathing room to see out Bumrah's final over for only three runs, which ended with Kings needing a manageable 25 off 18. But Coetzee's uncanny habit of breaking partnerships came through again, and he had Ashutosh pulling to deep midwicket at the start of the 18th over. Harpreet was then dismissed by Hardik in the 19th over. Rabada, the No. 11, struck a six off Hardik's last ball to make it 13 required off seven balls. A single off the last ball of that over, and a wide off the first ball of the final over, bowled by Akash Madhwal, brought it down to 11 off six.

However, he was run out in pursuit of a second run next ball, and Mumbai could celebrate a great escape.

SKY anchors Mumbai's 192

Before this game, Suryakumar Yadav had made two ducks and two half-centuries in his four innings this season. On Thursday, he walked in at No. 3 after Ishan Kishan fell to Rabada in the third over, and got off the mark with consecutive fours off the same bowler. It wasn't a duck, so he inevitably got to the 50 mark.

Suryakumar then used his wrists to put away Harshal Patel for another boundary in the fifth, and followed it up with a cut over the off side off Sam Curran in the sixth. Along with Rohit Sharma, he helped Mumbai to 54 for 1 in the powerplay.

Together, they would put on 81 in 57 balls, with Rohit contributing only 26 to the stand. Suryakumar dominated spinners Harpreet and Livingstone after the powerplay, but Rohit could not find the same fluency having been starved of strike for most of the stand. He fell in the 12th over for 35 when he tried to hit Curran over the covers but found the point fielder instead.

By the time Rohit was gone, Suryakumar had already reached his fifty in 34 balls. His innings was unusually sluggish by his standards, but the two-paced surface and the change-up deliveries bowled by Harshal and Arshdeep Singh forced false strokes too.

It needed Tilak Varma's take-down of Arshdeep in the 15th over for Suryakumar to also break free in his familiar, trademark fashion, and he did that by bashing Rabada for four, six and six in the 16th after successfully reviewing an lbw decision earlier in the over.

That 18-run Rabada over took Mumbai to 148 for 2 in 16 overs, and with big hitters to come, a score of over 200 seemed to be on. But Curran removed Suryakumar for a 53-ball 78 - only the second time he had faced 50-plus balls in an IPL innings - and Mumbai could not get a lot out of Hardik or Tim David. Harshal bowled a seven-run 20th over, which included three wickets, to keep Mumbai down to under 200.

After the innings finished on 192 for 7, the highest first-innings IPL total in Mullanpur, Suryakumar told the broadcasters he felt the score was "way above par," and his prophecy came true, but not without Mumbai surviving a massive scare.