Punjab Kings humbled Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League match in Jaipur on Monday to ensure a top-two finish in the playoffs. Asked to bat first, MI scored 184 for seven and PBKS completed the chase of 185 with nine balls to spare. With this win, PBKS have 19 points from 14 games. 2nd-place GT have 18 points from 14 games while MI finished on 16 points from 14 games. Third-placed RCB (17 points, 13 games) can enter the top two if they beat Lucknow Super Giants in the last league game on Tuesday. RCB can even top the table if they can beat LSG by a big margin. In that case RCB will have better run-rate than PBKS.
Punjab Kings, who have made the playoffs for the first time since 2014, now travel back to their home ground in Mullanpur for the Qualifier 1 scheduled on May 29.
The Eliminator will be played at the same venue on the following day. The complete playoffs line-up will be decided after the contest between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the already eliminated Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.
The architect of Punjab's win was the batting duo of Arya and Inglis. The highlight of Arya's third fifty of the season was his ability to gauge the situation and play sensibly when Inglis was going ballistic at the other end.
Arya's knock comprised sublime drives on the off-side while Inglis was more audacious, bringing scoops and reverse scoops into play.
Earlier, Suryakumar, who has been a picture of consistency this season, broke Sachin Tendulkar's 15-year-old record to become the highest run scorer for the Mumbai outfit in an IPL season.
The India T20 captain has amassed 640 runs thus far, bettering Tendulkar's 618 scored in the 2010 edition. Arshdeep Singh swung the ball both ways in the opening over of the game, troubling Ryan Rickelton (27 off 20) who managed to survive.
In the following over, Rickelton got a couple of boundaries from Kyle Jamieson, who was making his debut for Punjab Kings.
Rohit Sharma (24 off 21) was slow off the blocks before a straight hit over mid-off against Marco Jansen got him going.
Priyansh Arya (62 off 35 balls) and Josh Inglis (73 off 42) struck sparkling half-centuries to lead Punjab Kings' chase.
Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for MI with 57 off 39 balls while there were two wickets apiece for Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh and Vijaykumar Vyshak, who was, however, smashed for 23 runs in his final over by Suryakumar and Naman Dhir.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians: 184/7 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 57; Arshdeep Singh 2/28, Marco Jansen 2/34, Vijaykumar Vyshak 2/44).
Punjab Kings: 187/3 in 18.3 overs (Priyansh Arya 62, Josh Inglis 73; Mitchell Santner 2/41).