Punjab halts Mumbai march
Desperation pushed Punjab to the limits and they responded with a superlative bowling performance to trounce leaders Mumbai by a massive margin of 76 runs. Punjab, once again riding on a Shaun Marsh knock put a par score of 163 runs but Mumbai just wilted under the pressure of a run-chase to give the home side much needed win. However, Mumbai still sit atop the standings but the team think tank would be shocked by this pasting.
The Mumbai chase never got going except the first two and a half overs, when they had ambled to 19 for no loss. Then Praveen Kumar trundled in to bowl one of those gentle seam-up deliveries and Sachin’s on-the-up drive lobbed to back-ward point and that started the slump. There after, the batsmen fell like a pack of cards as if there was a procession and the match ended well before the second time-out. The most fancied batting line-up of IPL-4 could stand only 12.5 overs. Keiron Pollard threatened briefly with some lusty blows and was finally dismissed for 17 runs even though two of his catches were grassed in the outfield off successive deliveries. It was more a case of Mumbai gifting the wickets away than the Punjab bowlers getting them.
Taking nothing away from the home bowlers, they bowled to their fields compelling the Mumbai batsmen to make mistakes. Barghav Bhatt was the star with the ball claiming four wickets that earned him Man of the match. He was supported by Praveen Kumar who took out Blizzard in addition to the ‘little master’. However, the Punjab fielders helped Mumbai in whatever way they could to overhaul the target. In all, four chances that should have been taken went begging. Gilly and Valthaty dropped relatively tough chances behind the wicket but the real culprit was fast bowler Ryan Harris who made mess of a head high catch in the deep off Pollard, worse he parried the ball over the ropes for half a dozen runs.
Earlier, Punjab top-order put up a decent show to get a defendable total on the board. The openers, Gilchrist and Valthaty started aggressively to counter the hostile pace of ‘slinger’ Malinga; Gilly crashed the ‘purple cap’ holder’s first ball through the off side. But, Malinga replied with a brisk bouncer that crashed into the Punjab skipper’s helmet.Then ‘Mr. consistent’ Shaun Marsh combined with his captain to script a useful 70 run partnership in quick time. Gilly scored run-a-ball 28 with a couple of boundaries and a monstrous crowd-killer. However, Punjab could not kick-on from a healthy 92 for 1 in the eleventh over to post a mammoth total. Dinesh Karthik hit some cheeky shots to push Punjab past the psychological 150 barrier and even though wickets fell in a heap at the end, the Punjab score proved to be more than enough.
Even though Mumbai bowlers went for plenty in the first half of the Punjab innings, the bowlers pulled it back with Munaf Patel getting a fifer. Two of his wickets were result of superb catching by Pollard. Even though Malinga picked a couple of wickets, the toe-crushers were not coming at full speed. Mumbai also didn’t field as brilliantly as they have done all season, Andrew Symonds dropping a sitter in the covers. That somehow, summed up the day for Mumbai; it was not the usually efficient Mumbai on the Mohali field that we all are used.
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