Mohali: Ishan Kishan's stylish 75 off 41 balls was complemented by Suryakumar Yadav's 360 degree effort that fetched 66 off 31 balls as Mumbai Indians powered to a six-wicket victory over Punjab Kings (PBKS) in an IPL match, here on Wednesday.
Uncapped Jitesh Sharma (49; 27b) matched T20 specialist Liam Livingstone (82 not out; 42b) in flair and flamboyance as the duo stepped up in style in the back end to propel PBKS to 214/3 after Mumbai opted to bowl.
But Ishan and Suryakumar made a mockery of the 200-plus chase, winning with seven balls to spare.
The duo added 116 runs from just 55 balls as Mumbai raced to the target to secure their fifth win from nine matches.
Arshdeep Singh took a stunning catch to dismiss Suryakumar off Aussie seamer Nathan Ellis (2/34) and then he came to bowl the next over and accounted for Ishan with a knuckle ball with 37 runs needed off 22 balls. But Tim David (19 not out) and Tilak Verma (26 not out off 10) sealed the chase.
Tilak launched mercilessly into Arshdeep Singh who went for 66 in 3.5 overs.
The win pushed Mumbai (10 points from nine matches) to the top-six, ahead of PBKS (10 from 10 matches) on net run rate.
From being 0/1, it was only a one-way traffic with Ishan forging a counter-attacking fifty-plus partnership partnering Cameron Green (23; 18b) to set the tempo.
The duo got going against Arshdeep, hitting him for 16 runs in an over.
Ishan showed the way after their five-time title-winning skipper Rohit Sharma fell for a three-ball duck in his 200th appearance for his franchise.
It was the Suryakumar show that lit up Mohali when he batted with disdain against Sam Curran to race to a 23-ball fifty, his third this season and 19th overall.
Suryakumar, who came in as 'Impact Player' for debutant Akash Madhwal, opened the face of his blade to a wide Curran delivery and cleared the backward point boundary with utmost ease.
Curran retuned with a wide fullish delivery and Suryakumar had no problem reaching to it, as he went down on his knee to sail the ball over to 87-metre.
The next ball he offered a return catch to Curran but it was too difficult for the pacer as Suryakumar smashed two more boundaries to get 23 runs from the over.
There was no looking back as the duo kept scoring in boundaries to bring the equation down to 45 runs from last five five overs.Earlier, Livingstone raced to season's first fifty off 32 balls and ended up being the top-scorer. His knock was studded with seven boundaries and four sixes.
Giving Livingstone a perfect support, PBKS stumper Jitesh continued to impress as the two were involved in a 119-run fourth wicket partnership that came off just 53 balls.
Livingstone smacked his English teammate Jofra Archer for three sixes in a row in the 19th over.
