Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians
Sangakkara inspires Punjab to trounce Mumbai

MOHALI—Mumbai Indians will have realised that money can’t buy you a winning team, for the most expensive side in the IPL lost their third game in a row and were hauled down the points table by Kings XI Punjab, who got their first win of the tournament.
In a glitzy, throw-your-bat-at-everything Twenty20 game Kumar Sangakkara chose classic Test cricket shots to mark his presence at the IPL and give his side a reasonable chance of winning their first match of the tournament. Though he missed getting a hundred, Sangakkara managed to overtake Brendon McCullum as the tournament’s leading run-scorer.
For his first scoring shot, a drive through extra-cover for four, he transferred his weight perfectly from back to front foot and then arrested his follow-through halfway through the shot. Out of place in such a setting, perhaps, but no one was complaining.
He used his wrists to great effect; to reach his fifty - off 23 balls - with a cut-glide to point and to flick to fine leg. And the purists would have been delighted when he was joined by Mahela Jayawardene, who thrilled with an equally wrist-driven flick for six to fine leg. Jayawardene, though, didn’t stay for long, and was caught for 12 trying to sweep fine. Yuvraj Singh matched them in grace with a six driven over long-on. The biggest six of the innings, though, was hit by Brett Lee - he lifted a fuller delivery off Dhawal Kulkarni in the final over high in the sky over long-off.
That was the bulk of the batting for Punjab. Irfan Pathan got out to a poor shot while Karan Goel was run-out by an excellent throw from Dwayne Bravo at mid-off. Goel cut his lip when hit on the visor by a bouncer from Bravo and he replied with an upper-cut six off the same bowler.
Punjab slowed down in the middle overs - adding only 44 between overs 10 and 15 - as Sangakkara kept batting with new partners. They scored 94 in the first ten and only 88 in the last ten. Most of the batsmen fell to poor shots or in trying to go for the big ones.
Harbhajan Singh picked up three wickets, including those of Sangakkara and Jayawardene, and conceded only 32 runs. Ashish Nehra bowled a disciplined line and got two wickets for his efforts. Kings XI Punjab: 1 Karan Goel, 2 Irfan Pathan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan.—Agencies