Punjab Kings slumped to their fifth straight defeat, seriously hurting their playoff hopes, as Mumbai Indians cruised to a six-wicket win in a crucial IPL clash on Thursday riding on Shardul Thakur’s four-wicket haul and a clinical batting effort from Tilak Varma, who smashed 75.
Asked to bat first, Prabhsimran Singh (57) added a 33-ball 50-run opening stand with Priyansh Arya (27) to take PBKS to 55 for 1 in the powerplay and then added 57 runs with Cooper Connolly to go past the 100-run mark in the 12th over.
Shardul (4/39) brought MI back into the game with a four-wicket burst but PBKS managed to pile up 53 runs in the last three overs to post a competitive 200 for 8.
Chasing the target, Ryan Rickelton came out blazing as he single-handedly propelled Mumbai Indians to 59 for no loss despite Rohit Sharma’s scratchy 25 at the other end.
PBKS fought back with three wickets for 57 runs between the seventh and 13th overs, but Tilak Varma anchored the chase superbly with an unbeaten 33-ball 75. He first stitched a 61-run stand off 42 balls with Sherfane Rutherford (20) and then combined with Will Jacks to steer MI home in 19.5 overs.
The defeat severely dented Punjab Kings’ playoff hopes as they now need to win both their remaining matches to stay in contention for a top-four finish.
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