The Mumbai Indians (MI) vs Punjab Kings (PBKS) clash in Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) at Wankhede on Saturday night turned out to be another cliffhanger of this season. The last-over finish saw another bowler come out on the top. This time it was Arshdeep Singh, the left arm pacer from Punjab, who closed things out brilliantly for Punjab to give them fourth win of the season. A word of appreciation for Nathan Ellis too. He keeps Kagiso Rabada out of the playing 11 and justified his selection to bowl the penultimate over of the chase beautifully. With 16 needed off last 6, it was all down to Arshdeep and the Punjab pacer delivered the goods with two terrific deliveries, which not only cleaned up the batters but also broke the middle stump.
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Arshdeep runs, breaks and dances
Mumbai could not have asked for a better combination to be in the middle for the last over. Finisher Tim David faced the first ball of the 20th. Tilak Varma was on the other end. David managed just 1 off the low full toss bowled on the first ball. Tilak played a dot next as he failed to put the bouncer away for a boundary. Next ball, Arshdeep went fuller. Tilak was not ready for it and lost his stumps. The ball kept coming in and that did not allow Tilak to make the connection. It hit the middle of the middle stump and the wood broke into two. What a pretty sight it was for the bowler.
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Arshdeep did not change anything on the next ball to new batter Neil Wadhera. Same delivery, on middle and leg stump, fuller. Neil walked in to the shot and was in no position to hit this one. Another middle stump crash took place. The game was almost in the bag for Punjab now. Arshdeep gave just 1 off the next two balls, displaying a death overs masterclass against five-time champions to close the game for Kings from Punjab.
Watch Arshdeep break middle stumpsvs MI here:
ARSHDEEP SINGH - BREAKING STUMPS FOR FUN _pic.twitter.com/NNVlKWppaC
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 22, 2023
Surya back in form but MI still lose
Earlier, after winning the toss, MI had decided to bowl first. Backed by Sam Curran's 29-ball 55, Harpreet Singh's 38-ball 41 and Jitesh Sharma's 7-ball 25, PBKS posted 214 for 8 in 20 overs. Mumbai lost Ishan Kishan cheaply in the chase of 215. Rohit Sharma (44), Suryakumar Yadav (57) and Cameron Green (67) set up the chase nicely but the late middle order failed to close out the game in their favour.
It was a bad day in the park for Arjun Tendulkar, who picked up a wicket but went for 38 runs from his 3 overs.
After winning PBKS a thrilling game vs MI, Arshdeep spoke to the broadcasters and told them he was very calm during the death over. "I guess Danny you should come next to me and feel the heart beat; it's not even 120," the pacer told Danny Morrison on the pressure he dealt with bowling the last over. Arshdeep ha shad his issues with front foot no-balls. He worked hard on this aspect of his game ahead of IPL and the results are showing. "I changed my run-up a bit, and it helped with my no-ball problem," Arshdeep told broascasters after the match-winning effort.
