Mumbai Indians vs Kings XI [IPL 2016 Match 21 |25 Apr 2016] Match Highlights

21st match of IPL 2016 saw Mumbai Indians taking on Kings XI Punjab. Both the sides have had a very mellow IPL season thus far, none of the 2 teams have dictated terms and played to their true potential. While Mumbai Indians are a franchise that did well last year; Kings XI Punjab has been visibly struggling since the last few years of IPL.
The Kings XI captain in Miller finally won the toss and elected to bowl first. He left out Abbott and IN CAME Mitchell Johnson in his place, also made way into the side was Pardeep Sahu.

In spite of losing matches on a trot, the Mumbai Indians still stuck with the same side; perhaps giving Guptill an opportunity would’ve been a justified move but then that plays with Rohit Sharma’s position in the opening slot and knowing that Parthiv Patel is best suited for opening, Guptill really can’t be made to bat in middle order and hence Mumbai Indians have limited flexibility at hand.

The Mumbai Indians were hit early in the innings with the fall of their captain, Rohit Sharma – nicking the ball straight to the keeper – a wonderful in-swing from Sandeep Sharma.

The early wicket however did not put much pressure on Mumbai Indians, who showed visibly strengthened middle order batting without their main player in Rohit Sharma firing. The onus of the innings really was on Parthiv Patel, someone who was once seen as the brightest wicket-keeper batsman in India, coming into the Indian side in his teens but has somehow faded from limelight in the last few years. Today was his day.

Parthiv Patel is known for his smashing drives, squeezing the off-side field and also guiding the ball on either side of the wicket for quick singles –when he keeps going, runs start to flow. He was equally well supported by Rayudu from the other end. Rayudu hitting 4 sixes and 4 fours in his 65 was impressive; along with Parthiv’s paced 58 ball 81 – with 10 fours and 2 sixes.

A few lusty blows from Buttler and Pollard at the end guided Mumbai Indians to a strong total of 189, which it must be said; looked like enough against a struggling Kings XI line – up, the only hope Kings XI had of winning relied on it’s opening duo of Murali Vijay and Vohra for their middle order simply isn’t clicking – be it Miller, Maxwell or Marsh.

The Kings XI Punjab lost it’s openers early in the chase, with Vijay and Vohra departing for 19 and 7 respectively. Impressively though, Marsh and Maxwell for the first time in IPL 2016 got hold of the situation for Punjab and showed some resistance at the pitch.

Neither of the two batsmen though was going at a strike rate of over 150+ which becomes a reason to worry in a chase of 190, which means a required run rate of over 9 to the over.

It was perhaps this slowly paced middle phase of the innings which hurt Punjab’s aim for victory over the Mumbai Indians. The finishing overs required them to go all-out and smash some sixes (remember Miller guiding Punjab to chase 70 in last 5 against CSK a few years back!), Punjab needed something similar from him in today’s match but Miller’s batting told the same tale that it has been in the season so far; he wasn’t able to clear the boundary with the kind of relative ease he used to till few months back.

The 19th over from McClenghan saw two wickets falling, that of Axar Patel and Mitchell Johnson – 2 perfectly bowled yorkers.

Stat : Mitchell McClenghan now becomes the leading wicket taker in IPL 2016.
The last over from Bumrah beat Miller all ends up – in any case Kings XI required 39 in the last 6 which was a mathematically impossible chance – Miller did hit a six in the over which was a pleasant side but perhaps too late in the innings.

The middle overs in which Marsh and Maxwell played contrary to the required run rate left too much for the end which was perhaps the result of downfall for Punjab in today’s game, either of the two batsmen ought to have aimed for a strike rate of over 180+ but it wasn’t to be and at the end of the contest; Mumbai Indians beat Kings XI Punjab by 25 runs.

KXIP vs MI (IPL 2016 M 21) Playing XI

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