MOHALI, India (AP) — Chennai Super Kings’ woeful season continued as Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav hit powerful half centuries in Mumbai Indians’ nine-wicket win in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.
Earlier, Virat Kohli smashed his fourth half century of the season and led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a commanding seven-wicket win over Punjab Kings.
Kohli masterminded Bengaluru’s perfect chase of 159-3 with an unbeaten 73 off 54 balls after Punjab got pinned down for 157-6 at its home ground.
Sharma finally ended his run of poor scores with an unbeaten 76 off 45 balls – his first half century of the season — and Yadav made an aggressive 68 not out off 30 balls as Mumbai romped to 177-1 in 15.4 overs.
Chennai had earlier scored 176-5 with Ravindra Jadeja (53 not out) and Shivam Dube (50) scoring the bulk of the runs while 17-year-old debutant Ayush Mhatre showed plenty of promise in hitting 32 off 15 balls.
Mumbai jumped to No. 6 after winning its third successive game of the season. Chennai lies at the bottom of the table with just two wins after eight games.
Bengaluru, which won all its five away games this season, jumped to No. 3 and pushed Punjab to No. 4 on net run-rate.
The Sharma and Yadav Show
Sharma and Yadav plundered an aggressive 114-run stand off just 54 balls to the delight of fans at the Wankhede.
Sharma shared a 63-run opening stand with Ryan Rickelton, who should have been out lbw in the second over to Khaleel Ahmed, but Chennai didn’t go for television referral.
Thereafter, it was all Sharma and Yadav.
Sharma hit six sixes and four boundaries while Yadav was clinical with his sweep shots against spinners both in front of square and behind the wickets.
Chennai had struggled to accelerate in the first half of its innings and reached 82-3 in 12 overs before Jadeja and Dube tried to up the ante with a 79-run stand off 50 balls.
Bumrah restrained Chennai in the death overs with 2-25 when Dube holed out at deep mid-wicket and Mahendra Singh Dhoni flicked the fast bowler’s low full toss straight to deep square leg.
Jadeja completed his half century in the final over with a four and six against Trent Boult, but Chennai’s total was always below-par .
Kohli leads another masterful chase
Bengaluru made amends for its loss against Punjab at home just 48 hours ago as Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal featured in a productive 103-run second-wicket stand off 69 balls to seal the game.
Padikkal didn’t allow premier Punjab spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to settle down with a big hit over long-on off the first ball from the leg-spinner before he fell to another spinner, Harpreet Brar, in the 13th over. Padikkal hit five fours and four sixes in his aggressive knock of 61 off 35 balls.
Kohli, who hit five boundaries in the batting powerplay, raised his fifty off 43 balls before hitting two more boundaries and a six in his match-winning knock as Chahal got the consolation wicket of captain Rajat Patidar (12) when Bengaluru was only 15 runs away from victory.
Earlier, Bengaluru spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma tied down Punjab batters with four wickets for 51 runs off their combined eight overs.
Fast bowler Romario Shepherd, playing his first IPL game of the season, got the big wicket of captain Shreyas Iyer (6) in his first over as Punjab slipped to 68-3 in the eighth over.
Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar then returned in the death overs and didn’t allow the lower order to accelerate. Shashank Singh (31 not out) and Marco Jansen (25 not out) were kept quiet with Shashank hitting just one boundary and Jansen two sixes.
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The Associated Press
