Sachin Tendulkar

Mumbai Indians announced their return back to the winning ways by winning it, and winning it comfortably against the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League. This 23 run victory also meant that they are retaining their top spot in the IPL points table.

Earlier Tendulkar lost the toss and was put into bat by Adam Gilchrist. The second wicket pair batted sensibly for the Mumbai Indians and added 95 runs from 72 balls which was the undergird for putting up a challenging target on the board, though they should have made the most of the death overs.

Interestingly, Tendulkar took the role of the anchor while Rayudu took up the more aggressive role to score a 37 ball 51 which included eight boundaries and a six. Tendulkar consumed 45 balls for the same, in a knock comprising of three fours and a six.

Kieron Pollard played the cameo role towards the end by scoring an 11 ball 20. Rohit Sharma’s 18 (of 11 balls) also proved handy. For the visitors, leg spinner Piyush Chawla and medium pacer Ryan Harris grabbed two wickets each while left-arm slow bowler Bipul Sharma accounted for the other wicket.

Mumbai ended up scoring 159 for 5 and were 20 runs short of where they should have been only if they had accelerated a bit earlier.

Like many other teams in the IPL so far, Punjab squandered the advantage of chasing a score which was gettable. Harbhajan Singh was asked to open the attack this time and he grabbed two wickets giving away just 25 runs. The off spinner trapped Gilchrist leg before when the left hander tried to sweep the bowler. Barring a fine innings from Marsh, who struck eight fours, and his 72-run second wicket partnership in 60 balls with opener Paul Valthaty (33 in 38 balls), there was little of note in the Kings XI chase resulting in their fourth defeat in seven matches.

Earlier Rayudu seemed to have twisted his right knee in the field but later came as a substitute to keeper David Jacobs as the latter suffered a thumb injury which forced him to stay out of the field.

Kieron Pollard was adjudged the Man of the match for his quick-fire 20, the wicket of Karthik and acrobatic catching in long-on.

Tags: Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, Kings XI Punjab, KXIP, MI, Mumbai Indians