Mumbai Indians Fined After 5th Consecutive Defeat In IPL 2022

Mumbai Indians slumped to a fifth consecutive defeat in the IPL 2022 on Wednesday.

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma was fined Rs 24 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 match against Punjab Kings, the IPL announced on Thursday.

The rest of the members of the playing eleven were fined Rs 6 lakh or 25 percent of their match fee, whichever is lower, as the team failed to maintain the over-rate in the match played at the MCA Stadium, here on Wednesday.

As this was the team's second offence of the season, Mumbai Indians were handed the maximum fine allowed under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to a minimum over-rate offence, the IPL informed in a release after Mumbai Indians slumped to their fifth defeat in five matches on Wednesday.

Superb batting by Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal followed by a brilliant bowling effort by Odean Smith (4/30) helped Punjab Kings beat Mumbai Indians by 12 runs in Match 23 of IPL 2022.

Invited to bat first, brilliant fifties by Shikhar Dhawan (70 off 50) and Mayank Agarwal (52 off 32) powered Punjab Kings to 198/5 in 20 overs. Apart from Shikhar and Mayank's superb hitting at the top, Jitesh Sharma (30 off 15) and Shahrukh Khan (15 not out off 6) gave a late flourish to Punjab's innings at lower down the order.

Chasing a big total, skipper Rohit Sharma gave Mumbai an aggressive start by hitting a few cracking boundaries. However, Kagiso Rabada got rid of Sharma, who departed for 28 off 17. Vaibhav Arora then dismissed Ishan Kishan (3) to put Mumbai in more trouble.

Reduced to 32/2 after 4.1 overs, Mumbai needed a big partnership and two youngsters -- Tilak Varma and Dewald Brevis were in the middle. Brevis struggled to connect initially but in the 9th over of the chase, he found his touch and wreak havoc, by hitting one four and four back-to-back sixes against India international Rahul Chahar while Tilak also continued his rich form as Mumbai raced to 105/2 at the end of the 10th over.

It was Odean Smith, who ensured that Brevis (49 off 25) did not get to his maiden IPL fifty, getting him out with a short delivery. Yadav, who came to bat next, hit over the fence for the first time in the 13th over off Arshdeep Singh while Tilak (36 off 20) also fell in the same over -- run-out at the non-striker's end after a mix-up.

With Kieron Pollard (10) being run out while attempting a second, the pressure was on Mumbai as they needed 47 off 23 deliveries, with only Yadav being their last recognised batter. Yadav scored two successive sixes off Arora but Arshdeep bowled a fine 18th over under pressure, conceding only five runs.

The 19th over, bowled by Rabada, started with a boundary and Jaydev Unadkat sent Yadav back to the striker's end when he wanted to take a single. Yadav (43 off 30) fell the very next ball, hitting a low full toss to Smith at long-on.

With 22 required off the final over, Unadkat pulled Smith for a six and took a couple. But he fell off the third delivery and the bowler added the wickets of Jasprit Bumrah and Tymal Mills to his tally during the over, finishing with a career-best 4-30. Eventually, Mumbai Indians were restricted to 186-9 in 20 overs, losing by 12 runs.