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The Kings XI Punjab registered their 3rd win of the tournament with an emphatic 6 wicket triumph over the mighty Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on Sunday. Mumbai welcomed back their hero Sachin Tendulkar for this game and having opted to bat first, squandered a great position at 129/2 to end up scoring just 34 runs from the last 5 overs to finish at 163/6. Punjab's reply was encouraging and they were control throughout the chase but for a couple of lean phases but a superlative 67* from Aussie batsman Shaun Marsh saw the team home comfortably by 6 wickets.

After being pummeled by the Delhi Daredevils in their last home fixture, a Mumbai Indians side determined to bounce back took on the underdogs Kings XI Punjab on Sunday afternoon in front of a packed house at the Wankhede stadium. Home captain Harbhajan Singh won the toss and chose to bat first on a hot afternoon and also revealed that ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar was back fit and playing again. Lasith Malinga though had gone back home to deal with his back injury which meant his compatriot Thisara Perera got an opportunity ahead of Aussie Clint McKay for this game. Surprisingly enough Mumbai went in with only 3 foreign players for this game which meant out of form opener Richard Levi was left out for Sachin and James Franklin returned for this game. Punjab still had Gilchrist out which meant they had the same foreign contingent but they left out the out of form Paul Valthaty again for young local boy Siddharth Chitnis and brought back Bhargav Bhatt for Harmeet Singh.

Mumbai's Maestro Sachin Tendulkar opened the innings with Kiwi James Franklin, and India's favourite son looked in sublime form right from the start. Although the Kings XI bowlers kept the scoring down in the first couple of overs with some accurate bowling and some splendid fielding, Tendulkar soon began to take charge and upped the scoring rate. Franklin too helped himself to a couple of boundaries off left arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt and lifted his strike rate. After 7 overs, Mumbai were off to a steady start on 42/0.

Punjab, despite missing out on a couple of close calls in the powerplay, continued to keep up their intensity in the field and were duly rewarded in the 8th over. A brilliant piece of one motion fielding from young David Miller on the square leg boundary found Sachin Tendulkar (23) miles short of his ground in his quest for a 2nd run, which gave Punjab a much needed break through.

Parvinder Awana, who has been the find of the tourney for Punjab this season, struck another big blow in the 10th over as he sent back the dangerous Rohit Sharma for 2, having him caught behind attempting an over ambitious lofted drive. At 56-2, Dinesh Karthik and James Franklin got together for the Mumbai Indians and began the repair job. Franklin restored the lost momentum with a couple of massive sixes over the wide long on fence off Bhargav Bhatt, and Karthik continued the assault on Punjab Skipper David Hussey to catapult the score to 96/2 after 13 overs, scoring 31 runs off the last couple of overs. The pair continued to get boundaries off every over which set the packed stadium on fire! Hence, despite a couple of hiccups in the middle phase Mumbai recovered splendidly to set themselves up perfectly for a late overs dash with the score on an ominous 129/2 in 15 overs, with Franklin and Karthik tearing the Punjab attack apart.

The duo put on 75 runs for the 3rd wicket before a big misunderstanding saw Dinesh Karthik run out at the non striker's end in the 16th over after having made a crucial 35. The fall of that wicket meant the perfectly timed introduction of Kieron Pollard, who was sent in to give it a whack in the last 4 overs. The move didn't pay off though as Punjab finished well at the death. Pollard fell to a sharp catch at deep midwicket for 7 in the 18th over, a wicket that stopped the Mumbai charge. Parvinder Awana and Praveen Kumar then kept the scoring down and picked up some crucial wickets to restrict Mumbai to a gettable 163/6 in their 20 overs after it looked like they were set for atleast 20 more at the death.

The young Punjab openers for this game, Mandeep Singh and Nitin Saini, made use of the momentum gained late in the first innings and got off to an impressive start. They took on Munaf Patel in his initial burst, much to the dismay of the 31-year old medium pacer. They pelted 20 off his first 2 overs to get ahead of the rate. The pair put on 48 in 38 deliveries before Saini (30) fell plumb lbw to Pragyan Ojha to set them back. Mandeep holed out for 24 in the 9th over from Kieron Pollard with the score on 61. That brought together the two best batsmen for Punjab in Shaun Marsh and David Hussey. Marsh was very fluent in his stroke play while his partner took his time early on. The Aussie pair put on 35 runs in the next 4  overs with minimum of risk to set the match up for the slog.

Hussey and Marsh continued to play risk free attacking cricket going into the death overs of the chase and put on a healthy 58 for the 3rd wicket before Hussey (21) was beaten by a Kieron Pollard slower ball and holed out at deep square leg. With 45 runs needed from 28 balls, Shaun Marsh took over and saw Punjab through till the end. He played some unbelievable shots in his unbeaten 67 (40) that included some timely sixes at the death. He got reasonable support from Azhar Mahmood (10) and David Miller (5)* to seal the victory with 3 balls to spare. Although Munaf Patel and RP Singh bowled reasonably well at the death, Marsh was too good for them and punished nearly every delivery on offer and got his team a much needed two points.

Punjab pulled off their 3rd upset in the tournament to get a valuable 2 points and keep themselves in with a chance of making the top 4 with a great win over the home side Mumbai Indians. The Kings XI will be relishing the prospect of doing the double over them when they play Mumbai again in Mohali on Wednesday, the 25th of April.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: A Rayudu, S Tendulkar, R Sharma, K Pollard, D Karthik (wk), J Franklin, T Perera, Harbhajan Singh (c), P Ojha, RP Singh, M Patel

Kings XI Punjab: N Saini (wk), S Chitnis, S Marsh, D Hussey (c), D Miller, A Mahmood, Mandeep Singh, P Chawla, B Bhatt, P Kumar, P Awana

Mini Scorecard

Mumbai Indians 163/6 (20 overs, 8.15 runs per over)
J Franklin 79(51) P Awana 2/23
D Karthik 35(20) P Kumar 2/36

Kings XI Punjab 164/4 (19.3 overs, 8.1 runs per over)
S Marsh 67*(40) K Pollard 2/14
N Saini 30(25) P Ojha 2/28

King XI win by 6 wickets with 3 balls to spare