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Eliminated MI pile misery on faltering Punjab

rugby14 May 2026 18:09| © MWP
By:Neil Manthorp
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Punjab Kings’ dramatic loss of form continued with a fifth consecutive loss as they tumbled to a six-wicket defeat against eliminated Mumbai Indians in their Tata IPL match at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala on Thursday.

Punjab recovered from a dramatic collapse in which they lost five wickets in 21 balls to post a competitive total of 200-8 after being asked to bat first but Ryan Rickelton’s explosive 48 from 23 balls with a quartet of fours and sixes put the visiting Mumbai Indians on the road to victory.

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On the back of Tilak Varma’s dazzling 75* from just 33 balls (6x4, 6x6) Mumbai required 28 from the final two overs and 15 from the last after Arshdeep Singh conceded 13 from the penultimate.

Xavier Bartlett’s first delivery was hammered back over his head for six by Will Jacks (25* from 10 balls) and Tilak finished the task by whacking Bartlett’s fifth ball over the cover boundary to win the match with a ball to spare.

Punjab, who won six of their first seven matches and topped the log for the first month, reached 107-1 in the 12th over before crumbling to 140-7 losing 6-33 in exactly five overs before Afghani allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai crashed 38 from 17 balls to engineer a fightback.

Australian bowler Bartlett’s powerfully struck 18* from seven balls was also important in creating a contest.

But Tilak and Jacks had too much strength in the closing overs and Mumbai earned a consolation victory with Marco Jansen (4-0-55-1) and Bartlett (3.5-0-53-0) taking the heaviest punishment.

Mumbai's Shardul Thakur starred with the ball, claiming 4-39 in four overs.

The result leaves Punjab in fourth place, despite their collapse in form, but just one point ahead of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals in fifth place.

PUNJAB KINGS: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (wkt), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact subs: Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harpreet Brar, Mitchell Owen, Vishnu Vinod, Praveen Dubey

MUMBAI INDIANS: Ryan Rickelton (wkt), Naman Dhir, Tilak Varma, Sherfane Rutherford, Will Jacks, Raj Bawa, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah (captain), Raghu Sharma

Impact subs: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Rawat, Robin Minz, Krish Bhagat, Trent Boult

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