Adam Gilchrist bows out with a victory in Kings XI’s last IPL match this season

Dharamsala: Playing their final league match, Kings XI Punjab finished on a winning note by beating table-toppers Mumbai Indians by 50 runs in their Indian Premier League (IPL) clash here at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium on Saturday.

It was also the last match for their captain, Adam Gilchrist, who has announced his retirement from the format.

Put into bat, the home team posted a challenging total of 183 for eight with the help of two fantastic knocks from Azhar Mahmoud (80) and Shaun Marsh (63). In reply, the Indians could only manage 133 in 19.1 overs, with none of the batsmen playing the anchor role.

In a surprise, Kings XI skipper Gilchrist, already knowing that they had won the match, decided to bowl the last over and picked up a wicket with his first ball — that of Harbhajan Singh (5), who was caught at long-on.

With this win, the Punjab-based team finished their IPL campaign sixth with 16 points, thus not qualifying for the play-offs.

Kings XI lost Gilchrist (5) and Mandeep Singh (1) cheaply by the third over, which put the hosts in a spot of bother, but Mahmoud and Marsh struck a 148-run third wicket partnership which set up their innings.

The former Pakistani all-rounder hit eight boundaries and four sixes in his 44-ball knock, while Australia’s Marsh scored 11 boundaries all around the scenic ground.

The lower order failed to capitalise on the partnership in the last few overs, which is why they could not reach 200. But Manan Vohra played an important eight-ball, 20-run cameo, which included three boundaries and one huge six, propelling Punjab to a par score.

Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga was the pick of the bowlers, picking up three wickets from his four overs, but he also went for 39 runs at 9.75 per over. Mumbai, having already qualified for the play-offs, rested lead pacer Mitchell Johnson, who gave way to Nathan Coulter-Nile, who made his IPL debut.

In reply and with the absence of the injured Sachin Tendulkar, the Mumbai Indian batsmen could not build partnerships and lost wickets at regular intervals to hand the game to Kings XI.

Aditya Tare (22), Ambati Rayudu (26), Rohit Sharma (25) and Kieron Pollard (22) got starts but could not convert them into much-needed big-scores to overcome the Punjab total.

Mumbai were nine wickets down when Dhawal Kulkarni, who got injured while bowling, did not come out to match, giving the match to Punjab.