IPL 2021: Match 17, PBKS vs MI - Rohit Sharma's milestones, KL Rahul's slowest fifty and more stats

It was a low scoring one-sided match at Chennai just before the third weekend. However, it helped in a much required movement in points table which had a clear distance between top-4 and the bottom-4. Punjab Kings absolutely thumped the defending champions Mumbai Indians in the match 17 of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Rohit Sharma batting the 200th time in IPL, was the only constant in MI’s batting as they jogged to 131 in the first innings.

Mohammed Shami and Ravi Bishnoi were the leaders of the bowling, with identical figures of 4-0-21-2. The target of 132 never looked daunting for Punjab Kings, as KL Rahul played his natural game scoring 62 off 50 to steer them home. Both Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle played handy knocks to support him at the other end as Punjab Kings won by a huge margin to keep their campaign alive.

It was some comeback for the Kings XI Punjab, after losing three games in a row and losing their previous match by the same margin of nine wickets.

Here’s a look at the stats produced from this encounter:

200 – Rohit Sharma became the first player to bat in 200 innings in IPL. He made it a significant occasion by top-scoring with 63.

6 – Jasprit Bumrah became the sixth player to feature in 100 matches for Mumbai Indians. Kieron Pollard, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Ambati Rayudu have also featured in over a hundred matches for the most successful franchise.

3 – Rohit Sharma is now the third highest run-scorer in IPL history. He overtook both Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner during his knock.

41 – This is the 41st time Rohit Sharma scored fifty-plus in IPL, thus overtaking Suresh Raina’s 40 fifty-plus scores in IPL. Only AB de Villiers, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina are ahead of Rohit.

22 – KL Rahul, with his his 22^nd fifty-plus score, now has the most number of fifty-plus knocks for Punjab Kings in IPL. He overtook Shaun Marsh who has 21 fifty-plus scores for the team.

50 – Balls taken by KL Rahul to reach his fifty, which is now his slowest in T20 cricket.

9 – Mayank Agarwal becomes the ninth player to reach 1000 runs against Punjab Kings in IPL, and the fourth among Indians. Other three Indians who reached the 1000-mark for the Punjab Kings are KL Rahul, Wriddhiman Saha and Mandeep Singh.

9 wickets – This is now the first time Punjab Kings beat Mumbai Indians by 9 or more wickets in IPL history. The previous biggest win by PBKS against MI was 8 wickets at Mohali in 2019.

2018 – This is the first time since 2018 where Mumbai Indians have lost two consecutive IPL matches. In between they have played close to fifty matches without losing two consecutive matches in a season.

~Written by Kausthub Gudipati