Arshdeep Singh wasn’t just bowling at wickets, he was breaking them: Parthiv Patel

Punjab Kings held their nerves to ward off a spirited challenge from the Mumbai Indians to win Match No. 31 of the IPL 2023 by 13 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night. Chasing a stiff 215 for victory, MI were restricted to 201/6 at the end of their 20 overs, thanks largely to a brilliant performance by paceman Arshdeep Singh in the last over, where he gave away only two runs and also claimed a couple of wickets. Arshdeep emerged as the best of the PBKS bowlers returning with figures of 4-0-29-4. 

PBKS now have eight points from seven games and lie fifth in the points table, while MI are in seventh place with six points after three wins and an equal number of defeats. 

JioCinema IPL expert Parthiv Patel was left extremely pleased with Arshdeep’s performance, saying: “Executing at the end is very important. He started off well, picking up Ishan Kishan’s wicket early off a catch. The game changed when he got Suryakumar Yadav out. He wasn’t just bowling at the wickets, he was breaking them. His yorkers were plentiful and they were also accurate. We saw two stumps break and all the spare stumps at the Wankhede were brought to the game. Arshdeep won the match because they were giving away a lot of runs at that time. So, to bowl under pressure and see the yorkers we saw, he’s backing his skills and doing it really well.”  

Another JioCinema IPL expert Anil Kumble discussed the spell-binding 20th over. “He’s done that for Punjab before. He’s taken that role over the last few years, he was incredible in terms of coming in and bowling the tough overs. Today, it was tougher because they had to defend 15 runs and Tim David, who’s known to hit massive sixes, was on strike. 

But good for him and Punjab that he could have Tim David on the non-striker's end for most of those balls. A fantastic effort to finish things off. It’s not easy to consistently nail those yorkers and Tilak Varma is in the form of his life. To get him out, I know he was batting on just his fourth or fifth ball, but with a yorker, getting him out was fantastic.” 

Kumble also praised Sam Curran for his terrific 55 in Punjab Kings’ innings. “In those last five overs is where I think Mumbai lost the game. Today, they gave away 96 and it’s thanks to Sam Curran, who certainly took the game away from Mumbai and that was the difference, those 15 runs at the end was the difference.”