With a nine-run defeat against MI, Punjab Kings dropped to ninth place in the standings.
On Thursday, April 18, at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh, Punjab Kings (PBKS) lost to Mumbai Indians (MI) by nine runs in Match 33, their third straight loss in the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024). Mumbai, who were given the opportunity to bat first, scored an enormous 192/7 in the 20 overs permitted, thanks to a masterful innings by Suryakumar Yadav (78 off 53).
With a 3/31 average in four overs, Harshal Patel was Punjab’s best bowler. Ashutosh Sharma (61 off 28) and Shashank Singh (41 off 25) played courageous innings to help Punjab reach the target, but they were eventually bowled out for 183 in 19.1 overs.
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With two victories from seven games and four points after their defeat, Punjab is now in ninth place on the standings, the second-to-last spot. On Sunday, April 21, they play the Gujarat Titans (GT) at the same location. They have challenging matches against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) scheduled back-to-back after that.
In the following four games, Punjab will play CSK twice.
Punjab must win three of the next four games in order to turn things around and remain in the running for the playoffs. They still have seven games left in the competition, thus winning six of those games would get them 16 points. But if they lose several games, other clubs will have the final say over their destiny because their performance may determine their fate.
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Therefore, Punjab must win six of their next seven games and end with 16 points on the points table in order to prevent such a situation. They will need to raise their net run rate—which is currently at -0.251—if they end with 14 points, though. Punjab, who are already without their skipper Shikhar Dhawan because of a shoulder injury, have a difficult road ahead of them.
