Kings XI Punjab eyeing for playoffs went against this season’s leader Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday.

Punjab recorded their highest team total of the season – 230/3, but they still had to sweat it out to beat the two time IPL champions Mumbai by seven wickets in the 51st Match of this season.

Losing the toss, Kings XI Punjab came to bat first. They had a strategy and that was to score as much as possible. Wriddhiman Saha scored an unbeaten 93 off 55 balls and captain Glenn Maxwell knocked 47 off 21 balls.

Mumbai’s Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel matched the Punjab in the power-play overs. The openers hit fours in Matt Henry’s over and scored 15 runs in the second over of Ishant Sharma. Simmons scored two sixes off Mohit Sharma bringing the total to 68 for no loss at the end of power-play overs.

Parthiv hit consecutive fours off Mohit, but the opener played the same shot too many times and was caught at short cover. With scoreboard at 104/1 the home side were in a good position.

After Parthiv’s dismissal Maxwell claimed Simmons and then MI captain Rohit Sharma was taken off by leg spinner Rahul Tewatia for five. At 123/4 at 13 overs, MI were losing their way.

Mumbai needed 108 in the final 7 overs at a run rate of 15 per over, the game looked all over, but a late assault of Kieron Pollard brought the equation down to 23 from the final two overs.

Sandeep then bowled a fantastic 19th over and held Pollard under pressure. He conceded just seven runs. With 16 needed in the last over, Pollard hit a six off the second deliver. Mohit came back well with three straight dots helping KXIP beat Mumbai Indians by 7 runs and kept themselves alive in the race for the playoffs.

AMandeep