The KL Rahul-led Punjab Kings side finally managed to snap their 3-match losing streak, as they trounced defending champions Mumbai Indians by 9-wickets at the Chepauk stadium on Friday.
Mumbai’s dismal form with the bat continues
Having won the toss, Rahul decided to send his opposite number, Rohit Sharma, out to bat first on a turning Chennai pitch. And his decision yielded results in the second over itself; as an opener, Quinton de Kock mistimed a slow, gripping delivery onto Moises Henriques at mid-on. But even with that initial drawback, Rohit (63 off 52) tried to wage a solo recovery act and found some support from Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 27) at the two-down position.
But once that partnership was broken, none of MI’s reputed big-hitters could find form towards the backend of the innings. That, coupled with a disciplined death bowling display from Punjab, restricted Mumbai to a below-par score of 131/6. Ravi Bishnoi and Mohammed Shami, with figures of 2/21 each, emerged as PBKS’ chief wreckers from the night.
It was a truly disappointing batting performance from Mumbai, and yet it’s one of their batsmen who manages to feature on our highlights reel from that game. Right in the first over of Mumbai’s innings, Rohit had a close call with a caught-behind decision from on-field umpire Shamsuddin. The latter adjudged Rohit out after it looked like he had gloved a delivery going down the leg-side to the ‘keeper’s hands.
Rohit gets angry at the umpire after wrongly being adjudged out
A confident-looking Rohit wasted no time in going for the Decision Review System (DRS). Shortly afterwards, the on-screen Ultraedge replays confirmed that no bat was involved, with the ball barely brushing past Rohit’s shirt. Ergo the umpires had to overturn the original ‘out’ decision.
But although the decision ultimately went in his favour; Rohit was visibly upset with the umpire’s inaccurate judgement. Right after he went in for the review, the cameras caught Rohit walking over to the other end and making animated gestures at the umpire. He even appeared to be saying a few stern words to his partner de Kock. Here’s the video of the incident:
— Sportzhustle_Squad (@sportzhustle) April 23, 2021
— Cricket Unlimi (@CricketUnlimi) April 23, 2021
“Something is missing in our batting lineup”- Rohit Sharma
Coming to Punjab’s run-chase, their dynamic top-order made short work of the target; losing just a single wicket and winning with more than two overs remaining. The win levelled both the team on the points table with 4 points each. Rohit admitted in his post-match briefing that their batting approach in the 20 overs hasn’t been up to the mark.
“You can look at it, either way, I thought Punjab’s bowlers bowled well in the powerplay. Ishan (Kishan) was trying to hit but couldn’t get it and even I wasn’t able to score. We have batted well in the powerplay previously but today we failed to do so. Something is missing in our batting lineup, we are not able to bat 20 overs in the fashion we want,” he said.