On the 16th day of the tenth IPL, frontrunners Mumbai Indians took on Kings XI Punjab at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. This was match 22 of the Indian Premier League 2017. It was a day where a century was scored in vain and a match that promised to be a good contest ultimately turned out to be rather one sided; ending before the 16th over was bowled completely.
MI won the toss and put the opposition in to bat first. KXIP openers Hashim Amla and Shaun Marsh started off well; Amla making a century and without losing his wicket (104 off 60 at a strike rate of 173) and Marsh putting on a useful cameo of 26 off 21 balls. Captain Glenn Maxwell was the other Punjab player to make a significant contribution (40 off just 18 balls) to get the team to 198 and set the opposition a target of 9.9 runs per over.
Though it was a good total to defend, Punjab were unsuccessful in doing so, thanks to a masterful performance by the Mumbai batsmen. Openers Parthiv Patel (37 off 18) and Jos Butler (70 off 37), both with strike rates above 200 gave a flying start to MI. Nitish Rana (62 off 34) and Hardik Pandya (15 off just 4 balls and a strike rate of 375) finished things off with 8 wickets and 27 balls to spare.
Keiron Pollard won the best catch award. Nitish Rana won the maximum sixes award for his seven sixes. Amla received the Stylish Player award for his maiden IPL century but the Player of the Match was adjudged to be Jos Buttler for the innings that practically took the match away from the opposition.
With this match, MI have gained the top spot on the points table with 10 points from their 6 matches. Today’s match between KKR and GL could make some changes to the tables.
With his innings of 62 runs against KXIP, Nitish Rana is now the leading run scorer of the tournament and the new Orange Cap claimant. He is also the scorer of the most sixes so far in the tournament.
Andrew Tye has the best bowling figures, Nathan Coulter-Nile has the best bowling average and Shahbaz Nadeem has the best economy so far.
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