IPL 2025 Qualifier 2, MI vs PBKS: Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma to the rescue!

A quickfire, but utilitarian cameo from the ever dependable Naman Dhir (37 off 18 balls) ensured Mumbai Indians set a stiff target of 204 runs for Punjab Kings in the rain-hit Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Sunday.

Unexpected rain across the city delayed the start of the match by 135 minutes, but the overs were not reduced with Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer asking Mumbai Indians to bat first just before the sky opened. The decision post-rain looked dicey.

Stoinis strikes early

Iyer shuffled his bowlers early, successfully using Marcus Stoinis to change ends for his main seamers Arshdeep Singh and Kyle Jamieson. The Aussie was hit for 15 runs, but took the most important wicket of Rohit Sharma, who was dropped earlier by Azmatullah Omarzai. After hitting Stoinis for a straight four, the Mumbai opener tried to flick him off the next ball, but it went off the bottom of the blade and straight into the hands of Vijaykumar Vyshak at backward square leg. Tilak Varma started with a second-ball six off Stoinis and didn’t look back to celebrate his promotion in the batting order while adding 39 runs with Jonny Bairstow (38 off 24 balls) for the second wicket and thereafter a very hand 72 runs with Suryakumar Yadav (44 off 26 balls) for the third wicket.
Bairstow hit two sixes and three boundaries but departed when he attempted to scoop a scrambled-seam ball from Vyshak over the wicketkeeper’s head, only to find the stumper Josh Inglis instead.

MI batters deliver

Mumbai kept cruising at 10 an over run rate throughout as their batters kept hitting to the ropes and over while also stealing twos and taking quick singles to keep the scoreboard ticking in conditions that made running not very easy. The slowness of the wicket after the rain-delayed start cost MI the wickets of Rohit, Bairstow and Tilak while Surya’s attempt to hit Yuzvendra Chahal for another six didn’t hit the meat of the blade and ended up in the safe hands of Nehal Wadhera at deep square leg. While batters were troubled by the slowness of the pitch, the Punjab bowlers, especially spinners, were finding it hard to grip the wet ball. Given the conditions post the rains, MI did well to post 203 for 6 as the slowness of the pitch and wet outfield made batting difficult.

This article first appeared on Mid Day