T20 2018: Pollard to Bumrah - 5 talking points from Mumbai's win over Punjab

Defending champions Mumbai are doing it again! The three-time champions are again making a late surge to reach the playoffs and on Wednesday defeated Punjab by three runs to keep their hopes alive in the tournament.

Let's have a look at 5 talking points from the match -

Mumbai's shaky start:

Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis. Pics/ AFP

Mumbai this season have heavily relied on their opening combination of Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis and against Punjab both of them failed to fire as well as captain Rohit Sharma could not deliver when needed. Mumbai, after 10 overs, were tottering at 79/4 and were in danger of being bundled out for a low score.

Kieron Pollard bouncing back in style:

There is an old analogy in cricket that, ‘form is temporary but class is permanent' and West Indian Kieron Pollard showed all why he is rated as one of the best T20 performers around the world. Kieron Pollard, after getting dropped midway through the tournament, scored a brilliant half-century (50 off 23) and alongside Krunal Pandya added 65 for the fifth wicket and put Mumbai back on track.

Andrew Tye is having a brilliant season:

When Punjab led by Ravichandran Ashwin and director Virender Sehwag spent huge money (Rs 7.20 crore) on lesser-known Australian Andrew Tye, plenty of eyebrows were raised and questions were asked as well. But, Andrew Tye through a change of pace (read: knuckle ball) and clever bowling picked up 4/16 and with that became the T20 2018 purple cap holder (24 wickets in 13 matches). Andrew Tye has shown remarkable match awareness and has shown that if you have the basics right, the results take care of themselves.

KL Rahul is not Superman:

Indian cricketer KL Rahul is going through a purple patch, literally! The Karnataka dasher scored a magnificent 94 off 60 balls, but it went in vain and Punjab ended up on the losing side. KL Rahul, this season, has shown a new side to his game (Orange cap: 652 runs in 13 matches) and proved that him being labeled as only a Test specialist was not entirely fair Punjab T20 team must support KL Rahul and a few out of form players (read: Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh, Manoj Tiwary) have to step up to the plate as KL Rahul cannot bail out Punjab every time.

Jasprit Bumrah is the best T20 death bowler:

Mumbai's Jasprit Bumrah, by his lofty standards, had a very average T20 2018 and various experts and commentators inquired if Jasprit Bumrah's is plainly having a below-par T20 season. Jasprit Bumrah coming into this must-win game for Mumbai showed remarkable calmness and composure and ended up with 3/15 in four overs. This brilliant performance from Jasprit Bumrah keeps Mumbai in contention for the playoffs. Jasprit Bumrah bowled the crucial 17th and 19th over conceding only four and six runs respectively. Jasprit Bumrah proved his worth once more and showed everyone why he is considered a top death bowler.

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