After an outstanding knock of 104 runs coming off Hashim Amla’s bat, the Kings XI Punjab were pretty sure to win this game against the Mumbai Indians as they have set a target of 119 runs to win for the Mumbai Indians. But the opening pair of Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel followed by the 50 plus knock of Nitish Rana outplayed Punjab and win the tough looking game very easily by 8 wickets.
The target of 199 though looked very resilient to chase but the MI players had that confidence in themselves which was clearly visible right from the beginning. The way Parthiv and Buttler played for the first wicket was never ever speculated. In just 5.5 overs, both the openers added a total of 81 runs before Patel was dismissed for 37 by Marcus Stoinis off 18 balls. Parthiv hit 2 sixes and 4 fours during his batting stint.
Then came another in-form Mumbai batsman Nitish Rana and started ruining the Punjab bowlers at number 3. the dismissal of Parthiv didn’t affect much as both Rana and Buttler added another 85 runs for the second wicket. In the fourteenth over Jose Buttler, who was heading towards his century, was sent back to the pavilion by Mohit Sharma for 77 off 37 balls.
By then, more than half of the target was chased and just 33 runs were needed in 41 balls. Rana was still at the crease while Hardik Pandya joined him at as he came to bat at number 4. Sachin Rana continued his momentum of batting and scored another half-century of this IPL season. Pandya played his role perfectly with Rana and finally, the target of 199 runs was chased in 16th over with 27 balls remaining.
