Punjab, Kolkata win IPL games in thrilling super overs

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kings XI Punjab needed two thrilling super overs to beat Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

In the early game at Abu Dhabi, New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson made an instant impact in his first appearance in this season's IPL with an overall five-wicket haul as Kolkata Knight Riders also edged out Sunrisers Hyderabad in a super over.

Punjab and Mumbai were tied at 176-6 at the end of their innings and the first super over also couldn’t separate the two teams.

Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah restricted Punjab to only five runs and Mohammad Shami then held Mumbai to the same total with his impressive yorkers.

In the second super over Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya scored 11 runs for Mumbai against fast bowler Chris Jordan.

But Chris Gayle smashed Trent Boult for a straight six off the first ball before Mayank Agarwal hammered two successive boundaries off the third and fourth deliveries to give Punjab only their third win in the tournament.

Mumbai is second with 12 points, behind Delhi Capitals with 14.

During the 20-over game, Quinton de Kock hit his fourth half century in the last five games before he was dismissed for 53 after Mumbai won the toss and opted to bat.

Pollard (34 not out) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (24 not out) hit 57 runs off the last 21 balls to give Mumbai a decent target to defend.

Punjab captain Lokesh Rahul continued his sublime form in the tournament when he smashed two sixes and three boundaries during Boult’s erratic three overs in the batting powerplay.

But Bumrah’s pace brought Mumbai back in the game with 3-24 that included the key wicket of Rahul in the 18th over — clean bowled off a perfect yorker after scoring 77 off 51 balls.

Rahul has now scored 525 runs and is the leading run-scorer in the tournament with five half centuries and a century in nine games.

Needing nine runs off the last over, Boult returned and conceded only 8 as Jordan was run out off the last ball while going for the second run.

At Abu Dhabi, Ferguson took 3-15 in the regulation 20-over game and then held the opposition to two runs in the super over when he also bowled David Warner and Abdul Samad within the first three balls.

Kolkata notched the required three runs within four balls off ace legspinner Rashid Khan to record their fifth win in the tournament and stayed fourth in the table.

“I had my plan which was working throughout the game,” said Ferguson, adding that Warner’s dismissal in the super over was his best wicket of the day. “It was nice to put the icing on the cake after the batsmen’s effort.”

Ferguson mixed his pace with some brilliant leg-cutters to restrict Hyderabad to 163-6 in reply to Kolkata’s 163-5.

Needing 17 runs off limping Andre Russell’s last over, Warner hammered three of his five boundaries against the West Indian. But with two required off the last ball, Russell gave away only one to force the game into the super over as the Hyderabad skipper stayed unbeaten on 47 off 33 balls.

Ferguson made an immediate impact when he had countryman Kane Williamson (29) caught at third man off his first ball and then in the next over bowled Priyam Garg with a slower delivery to push Hyderabad’s run-chase off track.

He later returned and bowled Manish Pandey and could also have got Samad’s wicket in his last over but Russell dropped a hard catch at backward point.

Samad fell for 23 in the penultimate over when Ferguson relayed the ball back to Shubman Gill on the edge of the boundary to complete the catch.

Earlier, Kolkata captain Eoin Morgan scored 34 off 23 balls and Dinesh Karthik made an undefeated 29 off 14 deliveries to lift their team’s total.

Both batsmen took charge against Hyderabad pace bowlers Thangarasu Natarajan (2-40) and Basil Thampi (1-46) in the last five overs that gave Kolkata 58 vital runs.

“We probably leaked a few too many in the middle overs and at the back end,” conceded Warner whose Hyderabad team has won just three of its nine league games.

“I thought this was a nice wicket that wouldn’t change and to be fair it didn’t… we lost wickets at crucial times again.”

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