Ben Stokes picked up two wickets for 21 runs in Pune’s win. (Source: BCCI)
Twice in two matches at the Wankhede stadium a team batting first has defended a small total. Mumbai Indians defended a 142-run target against Delhi Daredevils to by 14 runs but on Monday, they were at the receiving end. Mumbai suffered a three-run loss at the hands of Rising Pune Supergiant after they fell short of chasing down a 161-run target.
The defeat to Pune ended Mumbai’s six-match winning streak and Pune extended their streak to three match to jump to fourth in the points table with eight points from seven matches. Mumbai, who have 12 points from eight matches, continue to top the table. (Results | Fixtures | Points Table)
Mumbai needed 17 runs off the final over and captain Rohit Sharma, who had already made a half-century could have steered them home. But his wicket on the fourth ball and then another on the penultimate ended Mumbai’s hopes of winning a seventh match in a row.
Mumbai got off to a decent start with Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler as they added 35 runs off the first four overs. Buttler was the first to fall as Stokes produced a slow delivery which his England teammate could only hit to long on.
Pune had a bad day in the field as they dropped three catch but that did not stop them from winning the game. Hero of Mumbai in this season, Nitish Rana failed on Monday as he top edged a pull shot off Dan Christian.
Rohit, who had struggled this season with the bat, managed to get some quick runs but lost partners at the other end. Parthiv fell after making 31 and Karn Sharma, playing his first game, also went back. Kieron Pollard did manage a 36-run stand with Rohit but he was dismissed at a crucial moment with MI on 122 for 5.
Then Pandya was dismissed first ball off the final over which was bowled by Jaydev Unadkat ahead of Christian and Shardul Thakur.
Batting first, Pune got off to a flier as Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi scored quick runs. Tripathi missed his half-century by five runs and fell after Rahane
Pune pulled things back in the middle overs with quick wickets of Smith, Stokes and Dhoni. Manoj Tiwary made 22 runs off 13 balls to push the total to 160 for 6.
For Mumbai, Karn and Bumrah picked up two wickets each while Harbhajan and Mitchell Johnson picked a wicket each.
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