Mumbai continue to repair their season

MUMBAI: Mumbai Indians continued to repair damage caused by a poor start to the season as they won their third game in a row when they defeated Kings XI Punjab on Sunday.
Kings XI are languishing at the bottom after seventh defeat in nine matches.
Mumbai’s push to a 23-run victory was begun by their openers Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons, who set up the score of 172 with a partnership of 111 in 12.2 overs. Though they did not have a strong finish to the innings because Kings XI’s seamers found the blockhole regularly, Mumbai had done enough to challenge a struggling batting order. David Miller posed a brief threat but his form was nowhere near enough to overcome Lasith Malinga and Mitchell McClenaghan’s nous at the death.
Mumbai had plenty of wickets in hand for a late surge but it never came. With Johnson returning for two accurate overs and Sandeep and Anureet bowling a succession of yorkers, only 49 runs were scored off the last five overs, as Mumbai fell well short of the 200.
Kings XI possess a formidable batting line-up but all their guns are misfiring at present. Closing his face too early to Malinga’s first ball, Sehwag was caught in the point region for the second game in a row.
Kings XI never really ignited the chase. They needed 100 off ten overs but while Miller was around there was an outside chance. But with 68 runs to get off 36 balls, and not one batsman finding fluency, Kings XI did not even get close and crumbled to hand Mumbai the victory.