IPL 2017: Mumbai Indians crush Kings XI Punjab by 8 wickets

Kings XI Punjab, on the other hand, will have their task cut out against a strong Mumbai outfit.

Earlier Amla’s classy hundred powered Kings XI Punjab to a competitive 198/4 after being put into bat first.

Buttler was caught by Punjab captain Glenn Maxwell.

Mumbai’s fifth win from six matches came after it scored 199-2 in 15.3 overs, gunning down Kings XI’s 198-4. The partnership was broken by Jasprit Bumrah after he bowled out Maxwell for 40 from just 18 balls.

If Amla was sublime, Buttler’s power-packed shots were scary as he hit seven fours and five sixes, completely overshadowing the effort from the illustrious South African.

Nitish Rana- Among the many local players making quite a blaze this season, Nitish Rana stands tall on the list with his run tally at 193 off the five matches played at a commendable strike rate of 138.60.

Hashim Amla needfully offset the absence of Manan Vohra, the man he eclipsed to become the highest run-scorer for his side this season, and extended a 33-ball fifty into an unbeaten innings of 104 off 60.

This time it was Amla, who took the Sri Lankan slinger to the cleaners twice before fending off for two boundaries as the over yielded 21 runs.

Buttler and Parthiv Patel made a cracking start for Mumbai. Rana has been Mumbai Indians’ batsman of the season. Marsh was the aggressor of the two, scoring 26 of those runs. Their bowling has been led by Krunal and the likes of Harbhajan Singh. He chipped in with a brilliant half- century in the last match to enable Mumbai toppled Gujarat Lions by six wickets.

The match will be day and night (D/N) and start at 20:00 (8:00 pm) local time (14:30 or 2:30 PM – 7:30 PM or 19:30 Pakistan Time).

Mumbai middle order, especially the likes of Nitish Rana and Kieron Pollard has played very well so far in the tournament.

Kings XI bowlers could look to bowl wide of off stump to the left-handed Rana, and get KC Cariappa to bowl more offbreaks than carrom balls at him.

In the two IPL games at the Holkar Stadium this year, batsmen have clobbered as many as 36 sixes, and only 39 fours.

Since Mumbai were the winning team, we have gone with Jos Buttler as our Player of the Day for his knock of 77 from just 37 deliveries. The Punjab bowlers, though, were poor on a placid batting wicket.