Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
Punjab Kings got their IPL 2021 campaign back on track and they did it in some style. KL Rahul's side completely outplayed the defending champions and handed Mumbai Indians a thumping 9-wicket defeat on a difficult-looking wicket in Chennai.
After losing the toss, MI came out to bat and had a disastrous start. While Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan had another disappointing outing, Hitman also survived a few scares. However, Rohit Sharma (63 off 52) got back his rhythm and stitched a solid partnership with Suryakumar Yadav (33 off 27). However, Ravi Bishnoi (2/21) and Mohammed Shami (2/21) pulled things back from Punjab Kings as they restricted their opponents to a modest total of 131/6 in 20 overs.
In reply, Mayank Agarwal (25 off 20) got his side to a steady start before losing his wicket to impressive Rahul Chahar. While the Mumbai spinners did stop the flow of runs in the middle-overs, KL Rahul (60* off 52) and Chris Gayle (43* off 35) fought valiantly under difficult conditions and showed some brilliant application with the bat. The experienced duo stayed till the end and helped Punjab cross the line in only 17.4 overs.
While every defeat is a shocker for 5-time champions, the fans of other teams were actually very pleased as they came up with some hilarious memes on Mumbai Indians. From Quinton de Kock to Krunal Pandya, quite a few MI players came under the radar of Twitterati on Friday.