Thursday’s match was played between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians at the ground in Abu Dhabi. The Mumbai team with an all-round performance with both bat and ball won the match comfortably. MI defeated Punjab by a margin of 48 runs and with this, the team led by Rohit Sharma won their second match in the current season and topped the points table.

In this match, Kings XI Punjab captain KL Rahul decided to bowl first after winning the toss. Rahul’s decision was correct, but a poor performance from them in the latter part of the first inning saw 89 runs scored in the last 5 overs by MI. Batting first, Mumbai team scored 191 runs losing 4 wickets as Rohit Sharma scored a half-century. In response, the Punjab team was able to score only 143 runs losing 8 wickets and lost the match by 48 runs.

Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya lighted up the death over with rain of sixers. Both played a fast-paced knock helping their team reach a competitive score. Pollard and Pandya finished with unbeaten scores of 47 and 30 respectively, the two of them taking over seamlessly after Rohit Sharma had anchored the innings with a steady 70 runs. MI’s paceman Bumrah took 2 crucial wickets and stopped Punjab team from unleashing their firepower. Pollard for his blitzkrieg inning with the bat was awarded as the Player of the Match.