IPL 2023: 3 Positives for MI from defeat against PBKS

Punjab Kings (PBKS) defeated the Mumbai Indians (MI) by 13 runs in a run-feast at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. With the win, PBKS climbed to the fifth position in the IPL standings while MI are placed at seventh.

Batting first, PBKS were struggling at 105/4 after 14 overs on the flat Wankhede playing surface. PBKS needed to get a big first innings score as prior to this game, all of the last five matches at this venue.were won by teams chasing

At this point, Sam Curran (55 runs off 29 balls) played a captain's innings striking a fine half-century, and was well supported by Harpreet Singh Bhatia (41 runs off 28 balls). Jitesh Sharma (25 runs off 7 balls), who has been highly-impressive this season, tore into the MI bowlers from ball one.

In reply, MI were always in the game with Captain Rohit Sharma and marquee overseas signing Cameron Green, setting a solid foundation for their middle-order. MI seemed to be in the driver's seat until Suryakumar Yadav got out in the 18th over after scoring a sublime half-century.

However, a top-class last over by Arshdeep Singh meant that PBKS won the match by a significant margin of 13 runs.

On that note, let’s discuss 3 positives for MI from their loss against PBKS.

---

#1 Captain Rohit Sharma creates solid platform for middle-order

Rohit Sharma (44 runs off 27 balls), played a fine knock which allowed his team to recover easily from the early dismissal of Ishan Kishan. The MI captain struck four boundaries and three sixes in an innings, while playing at a strike-rate of 162.96.

Rohit has been in fine form this season with scores of 1, 21, 65, 20, 28 and 44. The MI management and fans will be hoping that the 'Hitman' converts his starts into big scores consistently in the upcoming games.

---

#2 Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green launch into the PBKS bowlers

Cameron Green (67 runs off 43 balls) played a high-quality innings that helped set the tone for the innings with Rohit Sharma. The youngster kept finding the boundaries at the right times as he struck six fours and three sixes in his knock.

With two back-to-back fifties, MI will be happy with their most-expensive signing. Even, with the ball he had a largely good outing, picking up two wickets in the spell and going for just 16 runs in his first three overs, but eventually conceded 25 runs in his final over.

Suryakumar Yadav (57 runs off 26 balls) too has shaken off his initial bad form with two good performances in successive games. It seemed that SKY, with his breathtaking strokeplay would easily take MI home, until he was dismissed by Arshdeep Singh in the 18th over.

Yadav's whirlwind knock came at a spectacular strike-rate of 219.23 and his innings included seven boundaries and three maximums. Tim David (25 runs off 13 balls) too struck some lusty blows at the end but was undone by Arshdeep Singh's heroics with the ball.

---

#3 Piyush Chawla continues to impress

Piyush Chawla and Hrithik Shokeen, were the only MI bowlers to concede less than 10 runs an over. Piyush Chawla (3 - 0 -15 - 2), produced yet another excellent spell on a day when MI's bowlers struggled to contain the opposition. One of Chawla's scalps included the dangerous Liam Livingstone.

In six matches this season, Chawla has picked up nine wickets at a phenomenal economy rate of 6.86. His economy rate becomes even more impressive when you consider the fact that he has played three of his six games at the Wankhede Stadium, which is known as a batters' paradise.