MUMBAI — Mumbai Indians continued their winning form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013 with a nerve-wracking four-run victory over Kings XI Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium here Monday. Rohit Sharma starred for MI with an undefeated 79 that saw David Miller's 56 go in vain. Chasing a stiff 175, KXIP suffered a jolt as Lasith Malinga deceived Mandeep Singh (9) with a slower delivery and had his stumps in disarray. Manan Vohra (1) followed him caught by Kieron Pollard off Mitchell Johnson. But David Hussey went after Dhawal Kulkarni, hitting him for consecutive boundaries, before launching him over the ropes. However, Pragyan Ojha, Johnson and Harbhajan Singh struck to reduce Punjab to 85 for 5 at halfway, still needing 90 runs. Miller kept KXIP in the game and needing 57 off 30 balls, Piyush Chawla also gave good support to Miller. After Miller (56) fell Praveen Kumar (24) took over, but KXIP fell four runs short. Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar got MI rolling with two big strokes off Mahmood before he dragged a Kumar delivery back onto his stumps. After Dinesh Karthik fell for 25. Dwayne Smith attacked Chawla. Pollard and Sharma then continued the assault. Sharma plundered 27 runs off the last over – bowled by David Hussey – to propel MI to 174 for 3. Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 174 for 3 (Rohit Sharma 79 n.o., Praveen Kumar 1-24) defeated Kings XI Punjab 170 all out (David Miller 56, Harbhajan Singh 3-14) by 4 runs. — Agencies
