Australian Shaun Marsh hit an unbeaten 68 off 40 balls as Kings XI Punjab defeated the Mumbai Indians by six wickets on Sunday in Sachin Tendulkar’s comeback match in the Indian Premier League, while Kolkata Knight Riders beat bottom-placed Deccan Chargers by five wickets.
Marsh hit five fours and three sixes and shared a match-winning fourth wicket stand of 58 off 38 balls with his countryman and stand-in captain David Hussey (21) as Kings XI romped to 164-4 in 19.3 overs.
Tendulkar, who missed the previous four games for Mumbai because of a hand injury, scored 23 before he was run out, but it was James Franklin’s 79 with six fours and four sixes that anchored Mumbai to 163-6.
At Cuttack, Knight Riders’ Manoj Tiwari held the innings together in a low scoring chase with an unbeaten 30 as Kolkata made 127-5 in 19 overs after restricting Chargers to 126-7.
Shekhar Dhawan top scored with run-a-ball 50 in Chargers’ total after Knight Riders opted to bowl first when rain delayed the start of the match by an hour.
Knight Riders moved into third place with eight points from four wins and three defeats while Chargers are yet to register a point after five successive defeats.
Mumbai was on course to get more runs before Dinesh Karthik (35) was run out in the 16th over with the score on 131 while going for a second run.
Praveen Kumar got rid of Franklin and captain Harbhajan Singh off successive full tosses as Mumbai could score only 33 runs in the last five overs and lost four wickets.
Kings XI openers Nitin Saini (30) and Mandeep Singh (24) provided a solid platform of 48 before Marsh and Hussey kept scoring at a strong pace.
Mumbai still had a chance with Kings XI needing 20 off the last two overs. However, Marsh hit Munaf Patel over mid-wicket for a big six in the penultimate over and then hit Sri Lankan seamer Thisara Perera’s low full toss over point boundary for a one-handed six in the last over to seal the game.
Mumbai now have six points from three wins and three losses while Kings XI have the same number of points, but have lost one more game.
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