Punjab demolishes Mumbai and secures top-two spot in IPL playoffs

JAIPUR, India — Punjab Kings secured a top-two spot in the Indian Premier League playoffs after dominating five-time winners the Mumbai Indians by seven wickets on Monday.

Josh Inglis (73) and Priyansh Arya (62) smashed the Mumbai bowling and cruised Punjab to 187-3 in reply to Mumbai's below-par 184-7.

Punjab will play qualifier 1 on Thursday with the winner going directly to the June 3 final.

Mumbai will play eliminator 1 on Friday against Royal Challengers Bengaluru or Gujarat Titans.

Gujarat Titans are second in the table but could be overtaken by Bengaluru if it beats the already-eliminated Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.

Inglis and Arya dominate

Arya and Inglis combined in for 109 runs off just 59 balls for Punjab after Prabhsimran Singh was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah inside the batting powerplay.

Arya hit Trent Boult for three boundaries off the first four balls he faced from the New Zealander. Arya raised his half-century from 27 balls when he hit Hardik Pandya for six over wide long-on and bashed Jasprit Bumrah for a six over fine leg.

Inglis shrugged off the spin threat of Mitchell Santner, whose first two overs went for 23, while impact player Ashwani Kumar was dropped from the attack after being hammered for 16, in his only over.

Santner finished with 2-41 when he had Arya caught at long-off in the 15th over, and Inglis was out lbw when he missed a paddle shot against the left-arm spinner in the 18th over with Punjab just 14 runs from victory. They won with nine balls to spare.

Yadav feels Mumbai fell short

Suryakumar Yadav's 57, his 14th successive score of 25-plus in Twenty20s, was the cornerstone of Mumbai's total but he felt his team was 10, 15 runs short.

Ryan Rickelton, playing in his last IPL game before joining South Africa for the World Test Championship final, lashed a 20-ball 27, while Rohit Sharma struggled to 24 when he holed out to long-on against left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar.

Mumbai stuttered in the middle overs when it lost Tilak Varma and Will Jacks quickly.

Pandya grabbed two fours and two sixes in his 26 off 15 and was caught behind in Jansen's return spell.

Naman Dhir and Yadav counterpunched in the death overs and Vijaykumar Vyshak's penultimate over of the innings went for 23 runs. Arshdeep Singh bowled splendid yorkers in the final over and conceded just three runs for the wickets of Dhir and Yadav.

___

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket