Ishan, Surya fireworks lead MI to stunning win over Punjab Kings in IPL 2023 | Cricket
It didn’t come as a surprise when Mumbai Indians (MI) retained Suryakumar Yadav at a hefty price 8 crore ahead of the mega auction for this IPL edition. The 32-year-old batsman had been phenomenal for MI in the IPL and earned his India call-up because of that.
Coming into IPL 2023 with a stellar reputation, MI would be keen for Yadav to produce match-winning knocks with 360-degree shotmaking that can change the game in no time. Surya produced another brilliant 66 (31b, 8×4, 2×6) as MI chased down their second consecutive 200-plus total.
When Punjab Kings would have scored 214/3 on the home ground, they would have felt confident to defend the total. Eventually, they made the exact same score (214/8) at Wankhede on 22 April and won by 13 runs. But MI this time also found opener Ishan Kishan in sensational form (75 – 41b, 7×4, 4×6) as he and Surya helped the team reach home with seven balls to spare.
When Kishan was dismissed, MI needed 37 runs from 23 balls and their designated finishers Tilak Verma (26*, 10b) and Tim David (19* – 10b) dismissed them without much ado. MI are still atop the table while the defeat left Punjab in seventh place with both the teams on 10 points.
Kishan and Surya shared a match-winning partnership of 116 runs. Punjab Kings all-rounder Sam Curran is the most expensive IPL cricketer ever, but Surya and Kishan beat him badly. Curren took 41 runs in three overs.
Surya, playing as an impact player, scored his highest score of this IPL and his third half-century in four innings. Kishan made his second half-century after his first half-century against KKR without capitalizing on a few starts. When Surya was dismissed, a strong cut off Nathan Ellis by Arshdeep Singh in his second attempt at third man left MI still needing 45 runs, but Verma and David powered the team home .
PBKS, however, must be disappointed with their bowling effort as their batsmen scored their fourth consecutive 200 plus score this time on a batting pitch. Liam Livingstone played a brilliant unbeaten innings of 82 not out in 42 balls (7×4, 4×6). Captain Shikhar Dhawan (30) and Matthew Short (27) made contributions. Jitesh Sharma scored 49* (27b, 5×4, 2×6) with Livingstone and played an unbroken 119 off 52 balls.
There was a lot of talk about Livingstone’s availability ahead of this IPL. After injuring his knee on his Test debut in Pakistan, he missed some of the opening games. The 29-year-old England batsman, however, came into his own on Wednesday.
PBKS were 95/3 just after the halfway point, but Sharma and Livingstone kept on smashing with only an excellent last over by Akash Madhwal – he conceded just nine runs – finally slowing them down.
