Mumbai Indians win fifth game in a row

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians maintained their winning momentum, and guarded their proud home base with a 4-wicket win over the Kings XI Punjab.

It's interesting to note that the encounters between these two sides have always been tense - what was expected to be a cakewalk for MI turned out to be a tale of twists and turns with the home side swinging it at the last minute.

Opting to field first, Mumbai Indians led by their strike pair of Lasith Malinga and Zaheer Khan, routed the Punjab side on the hallowed turf of Brabourne Stadium.

Malinga (4-22) and Zaheer (3-34) struck at regular intervals to leave the Kings XI Punjab's new look line-up wounded.

Kings XI Punjab ended at 163 off their quota of 20 overs and in reply, Mumbai Indians won in the 20th over off a wide ball leading to wild celebrations.

Mumbai Indians won by four wickets to post their fifth straight win and two more points to keep them on top of the table.

The IPL 2008 Orange Cap winner Shaun Marsh (57: 47b, 6x4, 1x6) returned to the tournament in fine style.

Shaun Marsh held the batting together, but suicidal run-outs, coupled with pin-point yorkers by Malinga, triggered off Kings XI Punjab's collapse.

The only partnership of note was a 49-run stand between stand-in-skipper Mahela Jayawardene and Marsh.

Mumbai Indians chase never really took off after opener Shikhar Dhawan (50: 40 b, 6x4) got off to a fine start.

But the regular fall of wickets ensured that the untested Mumbai Indians middle-order struggled to get going.

Kings XI Punjab's band of medium-paced bowlers, especially Ravi Bopara (3-31), bowled intelligently on the slowing track.

Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu promised much but it was all down to rising star Saurabh Tiwary.

Tiwary brought the asking rate down with a couple of DLF Maximums.

Rajagopal Sathish and Tiwary delivered a knock-out punch in the 19th over.

From then on, Kings XI Punjab struggled to control the momentum gained by Mumbai Indians. They now languish at the bottom of the table with all but no hope of making the semis.