Kings XI Punjab emerge winners against MI after two Super Overs

Dubai, October 18, 2020

It took two Super Over deciders, in addition to the 40 overs that were played already, to decide who was the winner on Sunday evening. Quite aptly, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) kept their nerve to edge out Mumbai Indians (MI) in an edge-of-the-seat IPL thriller here.

KXIP managed to stop MI from chasing down a target of six in the first Super Over and in the second Super Over Chris Gayle and Mayank Agarwal scored the required 12 runs to take them to a win at the Dubai International Stadium.

Agarwal also played a crucial role in ensuring that MI only scored 11 runs in their second Super Over and not 15 when he leapt back to catch the ball while being air-borne at long on boundary line and threw it back in to deny Kieron Pollard a six.

Earlier, chasing a target of 177, the equation came down to KXIP needing nine to win off the last over. MI's Trent Boult, however, made sure that the task turned out to be difficult for them despite Chris Jordan hitting a four off the second ball.

With the situation coming down to them needing two off the last ball, Jordan failed to make it back for his second due to a bizarre semi-circle he ran at the non-striker's end, leaving him more than a pitch away from the wicket by the time he made his way back.

KXIP ended their innings on 176/6 wickets, which was also MI's score at the end of their 20 overs.

Earlier, Kieron Pollard and Nathan Coulter-Nile smashed 57 runs in the death overs to take Mumbai Indians to 176/6 in their 20 overs.

Pollard ended the innings unbeaten on 34 off 12 deliveries with one four and four sixes while Coulter-Nile was not out on 24 off 12 balls with four fours to his name.

Their partnership shifted the momentum MI's way as the four-time champions' top order, with the exception of opener Quinton de Kock, failed to fire.

MI lost captain Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan in the powerplay after which de Kock and Krunal Pandya looked to steady the ship. The pair posted 58 for the fourth wicket after which de Kock combined with Hardik Pandya to put up 20 for the fifth.

The South African was dismissed on 53 off 43 balls in the 17th over after which Pollard and Coulter-Nile took the attack to the opposition.

IANS