Tonight India’s two preimere T20 openers got on the ground to face each other.

While Rohit Sharma has

been a legend of the IPL, both because of his leadership skills and his batting, KL comes into this eason of
IPL, with a lot of expectations pinned on him, both as a leader and a player. KXIP lost 2 very close
matches, one courtesy a super over and the other courtesy the Tewatia brilliance. KL and Kumble
needed to join hands in order to keep the morale high in the camp after such demoralizing losses.

KXIP won the toss and decided to put MI into bat. I don’t know why a team having the likes of Kumble,
Johnty and KL in the think tank did not take lesson from the RCB match. Virat brought the off spinner on
to unsettle Rohit at the beginning of his inning. Washington Sundar cramped Rohit for room with his
length and denied him the pace, he needs on the ball to settle down in his mojo. The Result- Rohit top
edged a pull to deep midwicket, trying to create his own pace.

Despite KXIP having a similar bowler in the line up- in the form of Gowtham, KL Rahul inexplicably
brought Bshnoi on in the powerplay instead of the off spinner. Rohit negotiated him safely and started
settling down in the wicket. Even when, Gowtham came on, in the sixth over he bowled wide lines
allowing Rohit room outside the off stump, allowing him to hit boundaries at will.

Shami and Cottrell were as usual brilliant in the powerplay. Both of them hit the hard length and
troubled the bastmen with their pace. De Kock was was dismissed early once again and Surya
unfortunately was runout for the second time in 4 matches. Cricket, as they say is a great leveller. Ishan
Kishan, who played a freaky genius inning last night against RCB, found it difficult to time the ball out of
the square tonight. There were a few ugly hoicks, that fell in no man’s land and ultimately Jishan was
dismissed off Gowtham, mistiming his slog to deep mid wicket.

While wickets were falling at the other end, Rohit was setting himself up for demolishing the KXIP
bowling the last 10 overs. Quite unfathomably, Punjab allowed Rohit to get set at the crease, making no
effort to stop the flow of singles. And the after Kishan’s dismissal, the Rohit show began for MI. KL Rahul
has seen a lot of Hitman shows on the field, but the difference was this time, he had the seat of the
wicketkeeper rather than the non-striker.

Rohit Sharma cracked 8 boundaries and 3 sixes to dismantle the KXIP bowling attack, even before the
slog overs. Ravi Bishnoi has been a mjor reason for KXIP’s dominance in the middle overs. Today he was
taken to the cleaners, as he conceded 37 off his 4 overs. Rohit finally got dismissed courtesy an excellent
catch at the boundary by the duo of Maxwell and Neesham. The way Maxwell retained balance at the
boundary rope is indeed something that says a lot about his fitness and presence of mind.

KL Rahul took a good decision today to bowl out Cottrell in the powerplay & middle overs. Cottrell’s
figures of 1 for 19 sow that he has been properly utilized by his captain tonight. The problem was that
he chose a wrng bowler to bowl at the death. Jimmy Neesham has close to nil experience of bowling at
the death in T20 cricket. To leave him infront of a well –set Pollard & Pandya is like sky diving without a
parachute.

No wonder, he was taken to the cleaners by both Pollard and Pandya. Neesham kept on bowling length
deliveries on a flat pitch and both Pollard and Pandya kept on making merry. Infact, KXIP bowled so
badly in the last 6 overs that they ended up conceding 104! The RCB-blues of death bowling are setting
in for Punjab. I have mentioned time and again in my articles that the only hope of KXIP recovering at
the death, is to bring back Mujeeb. Mujeeb has bowled for KXIP at the death, in previous IPL seasons as
well and KXIP needs to resort to him, before they find themselves out of the competition due to their
death bowling woes.

KXIP began their chase in a canter. Mayank Agarwal is looking in excellent touch this IPL and he helped
KXIP get off to a fast start tonight as well. However, Bumrah castled Mayank in the 5 th over with an in-
ducker. It is surprising how good fast bowlers can generate seam movement in the flattest of surfaces.
Last night, we saw Jofra doing it. Tonight we saw Bumrah doing the same. Mayank’s 25 off 18 deliveries
showed promise but fizzed out before it could cause signifcant damage to MI.

With Mayank gone, Rahul began playing an even more cautious brand of cricket. Karun Nair is having a
nightmare this IPL. Everything he is doing , is resulting in his dismissal. He is an excellent young batsman
and I hope he comes back to make this stage his own very soon. Krunal Pandya, whose bowling form,
had been a concern for MI till now, came good tonight as he accounted for Karun with his arm ball.

With a chase of 192 on the cards, KXIP was simply unable to shift gears at any phase of the chase. MI
bowled tight lines and KXIP were simply getting less loose balls on offer. Bumrahy returned to form,
much to the relief of the Mumbai cauldron. Bumrah’s success has been historically indicative of th
eteam’s performance in their successful campaigns and his returning to form, after a forgettable mat6ch
against RCB will boost the MI line-up.

However, the start of tonight was Rahul Chahar. The control with which he bowled deserves a lot of
appreciation. Infact he extracted purchase from the flat pitch on offer and made life difficult for the KXIP
batsmen in the middle overs. He accounted for 2 top order wickets tonight in the form of Lokesh Rahul
and Glen Maxwell. Both of them had the capability to turn a 190+ chase on its head. Chhar was simply
magnificient tonight and was easily the Man of the Match for me.

Once the partnership of Rahul & Pooran was broken, KXIP conceded the game then and there. Rahul
was unlucky with his dismissal tonight as the ball just kissed the bell on its way to the wicketkeeper,a s
KL went too far across his stumps. After his dismissal, Pooran stuck a few lusty blows, but they were all
in lost cause. It looks like Maxwell is yet to adjust to the pace of the pitches in Dubai and if he does not
achieve that soon, KXIP may be tempted to replace him in the playing 11.

When Neesham and Sarfraz came to the crease, the match had already floated away from the Punjab
team. To be honest, KXIP never looked like chasing the total down, having lost both Rahul and Mayank
in the first 10 overs.

MI got back to winning ways after their blip in the last match. Do they need to change their line up? I fell
Hardik, Krunal and Pollard are batting a position lower than they should. They may think about picking
eithe rof Kishan, Surya or Saurabh Tiwary and play the extra bolwer in the form of Dhawal Kulkarni. As of
now, MI’s 5th bolwer is Kieron Pollard, who doesn’t inspire much confidence, if the batsman is on song.