The 2015 IPL Champions, the Mumbai Indians, are showing some fierce doggedness in their efforts to defend their title.
On Wednesday they travelled to the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore to face the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who were desperate for a third successive victory in order to keep alive their own hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase of the tournament.
In the event, Mumbai Indians didn’t need to be at their best to claim a fourth win in five matches. Easing home by 6-wickets with eight balls to spare, after RCB could only muster 151-4 in their allotted 20-overs.
That result lifted the Indians into the top four in the table, with 12 points from their 11 fixtures. Taking them above the Delhi Daredevils, who themselves have 10 points, but have two matches in hand over the reigning Champions.
On Thursday, the Daredevils tackle the table topping Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad.
The Kings XI Punjab have had a woeful season, that has produced just three victories and seven defeats, and sees them rooted to the foot of the qualifying table, knowing that even victory in all four of their remaining fixtures is highly unlikely to be enough to see them qualify for the post-season play-offs.
This will be the seventh time in nine seasons of IPL competition that the Kings XI will have failed to progress beyond the qualifying stage.
When the sides met on the 25th April, Mumbai won by 25 runs at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. Their 189-6, with Parthiv Patel scoring 81 from 58 balls, proving to stiff a target for the home team.