By Prakash Nair 
Dharamsala, May 14: At some point tonight, sitting in that Dharamsala press box with the mountains disappearing into the dark behind the floodlights, you had to ask yourself a question that felt almost uncomfortable to say out loud.
Are Punjab Kings actually going to make the playoffs?
Because five losses in a row is not a bad patch anymore. It is a pattern. And patterns in T20 cricket, especially this late in the season, have a way of becoming permanent very quickly.
Mumbai Indians won by 6 wickets. Tilak Varma hit 63 off 31 balls and took this game away from Punjab at a moment when Punjab were genuinely, legitimately winning it. And now the team that was unbeaten through seven games, the best start in IPL history, sits in fourth place with two games left and a real chance of not finishing top four at all.
The First Innings Better Than It Looked, Worse Than It Needed to Be
Punjab batted first and the surface was tricky early. Not impossible, but tricky. The kind of pitch where the first ten deliveries tell you a lot and you adjust accordingly.
Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh read it reasonably well. Nothing explosive in the powerplay the way Punjab have done it at their very best this season, but watchful, purposeful, accumulating without panicking. Prabhsimran eventually found his range and started timing it. A couple of sixes off Raghu Sharma in the tenth over, the innings sitting at a decent score at halfway, and it felt like Punjab were building to something solid.
Then Shardul Thakur happened.
In the space of one over, two of the most important wickets Punjab had. Prabhsimran, who had been absolutely motoring on 57, nicked one to Corbin Bosch at the boundary. Then Shreyas Iyer the captain, the man this team leans on in crisis situations walked in and was bowled second ball for 4. Bowled. For four. By Shardul Thakur. In a must-win game.
Raj Bawa then bowled Cooper Connolly in the next over. Three wickets in two overs. A batting lineup that had looked measured and sensible was suddenly looking very thin indeed.
What saved Punjab was the tail. Vishnu Vinod and Xavier Bartlett smashed Bosch for 21 in the 19th over a mix of top-order audacity and lower-order stubbornness that pushed the total to 200 for 8. It was not what anyone had in mind when the innings started. But 200 is 200, and on this surface with this bowling attack, it felt like a number you could work with.
Shardul ended with 4 for 39. He was the best player on the park in the first innings, and it is a measure of how chaotic Punjab’s evening became that a four-wicket haul from the opposition’s fifth bowler almost got lost in everything that followed.
Punjab Were Winning This Chase. They Really Were.
Give credit where it is due. The bowling in the first half of MI’s innings was genuinely good.
Yuzvendra Chahal bowled Rohit Sharma through the gate for 24, a moment of real quality from the legspinner who had been a spectator for the entire game against Delhi Capitals three days ago. The ball turned, dipped, and kept a fraction low, and Rohit’s attempted drive found nothing but stumps. Chahal was jumping, the whole Punjab team was jumping, and with MI at 88 for 3 after ten overs needing 112 more off the last ten, the momentum had completely shifted.
Marco Jansen had removed Naman Dhir with a short ball earlier, a clever piece of bowling that forced an ugly top-edged pull straight to Arshdeep Singh at fine leg. Two right-handers gone. Sherfane Rutherford and Tilak Varma at the crease. Required rate climbing past 12 an over.
At that point, sitting in any neutral part of this ground, you would have backed Punjab to win. Not comfortably, not easily, but to win. The required rate was steep and MI were down to recognised but not match-winning batters.
That assumption lasted about three overs.
Tilak Varma Did Not Read the Script
The 16th over is where this game was lost. Shreyas Iyer, with two left-handers at the crease, called on Chahal. The thinking was probably that Chahal had already taken Rohit and was bowling well, and sometimes you back your good bowlers regardless of the match-up.
First ball, Tilak walked down the pitch and absolutely launched it straight back over Chahal’s head for a six. Not a slog. A proper hit, full face of the bat, the sound of it carrying into the stands. Then a four, slightly mistimed but convincing enough. Rutherford pulled one away for maximum. Twenty runs from the over.
Chahal walked back to his mark looking at the sky. The kind of over where you know something has shifted and you are not entirely sure how to get it back.
Rutherford was eventually caught at long-off for 29, Jansen taking a clean catch going back. Will Jacks came in. The equation was 28 off 2 overs, which is exactly the kind of equation that sounds manageable on paper and then suddenly is not.
And then there is the dropped catch. Marco Jansen had a chance at long-on when Tilak was in the early 40s, ran in from the deep, went for it, and put it down. These things happen in cricket. They have been happening to Punjab all season. Five drops, six drops, and every single time they come back to hurt. Tilak, still batting, went on to make 63 not out. That one chance might have changed the entire result.
The last over needed 15. Will Jacks hit a six off the first delivery. Nine off five. A dot. Then Tilak, against Bartlett, backed away, created room, and hit it over covers so cleanly that the fielder at long-off did not even move. The ball cleared the rope by about fifteen metres. Two needed off two. Done.
MI won with two balls to spare. Tilak Varma was unbeaten on 63.
Where Punjab Are Now
Two games left. Have to win both. And even winning both might not be enough to guarantee a top-two finish.
The problems are the same problems they have had for a month. The dropped catch tonight, Jansen going down off Tilak at a critical moment. The death bowling, 20 off the 16th over when they needed control most. The batting, Iyer gone for 4 in his second ball in a game Punjab absolutely needed him to play a big innings. None of these are new. All of them are getting worse.
What makes tonight particularly difficult to accept is the proximity of the win. Punjab were 88 for 3 in the tenth over. Right there. Had the match. Lost it because one 23-year-old batter decided he was going to play the innings of the season and nobody could stop him.
Tilak Varma is a brilliant cricketer. That needs to be said plainly. The shot off Bartlett to win the game was not a lucky swing. It was calculation, timing, and the kind of clarity under pressure that most batters take years to develop. He played that chase like it was a net session, completely calm, completely in control, and completely devastating.
For Mumbai Indians the win is a reminder that they have real players even in an awful season, and that Jasprit Bumrah can lead a side with tactical intelligence even when the results have not gone their way all year.
For Punjab, the dressing room tonight is probably the quietest it has been all season. Two games. Everything on the line. A team that still has the talent to turn it around and absolutely no evidence, across the last five games, that they know how.
The mountains outside Dharamsala do not offer any answers. Neither, right now, does anyone inside the Punjab Kings camp.
Scorecard Summary
PUNJAB KINGS: 200/8 (20 Overs)
| Batter | Dismissal | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Priyansh Arya | b Deepak Chahar | 22 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 129.41 |
| Prabhsimran Singh (wk) | c Bosch b Shardul | 57 | 32 | 6 | 4 | 178.12 |
| Cooper Connolly | b Raj Bawa | 21 | 22 | 2 | 1 | 95.45 |
| Shreyas Iyer (c) | b Shardul Thakur | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 200.00 |
| Suryansh Shedge | c Raj Bawa b Shardul | 8 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 160.00 |
| Shashank Singh | lbw b Corbin Bosch | — | — | — | — | — |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | c & b Deepak Chahar | — | — | — | — | — |
| Marco Jansen | not out | — | — | — | — | — |
| Xavier Bartlett | not out | — | — | — | — | — |
| Extras | ||||||
| Total | 200/8 (20 Overs) |
MI Bowling:
| Bowler | O | R | W | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deepak Chahar | 4 | — | 2 | — |
| Shardul Thakur | 4 | 39 | 4 | 9.75 |
| Jasprit Bumrah (c) | 4 | — | 0 | — |
| Corbin Bosch | 4 | — | 1 | — |
| Raghu Sharma | 2 | — | 0 | — |
| Raj Bawa | 2 | — | 1 | — |
MUMBAI INDIANS: 201/4 (19.4 Overs)
| Batter | Dismissal | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Rickelton (wk) | out | 24 | — | — | — | — |
| Naman Dhir | c Arshdeep b Jansen | — | — | — | — | — |
| Rohit Sharma | b Yuzvendra Chahal | 24 | — | — | 2 | — |
| Tilak Varma | not out | 63 | 31 | 6 | 4 | 203.23 |
| Sherfane Rutherford | c Jansen b Omarzai | 29 | — | — | — | — |
| Will Jacks | not out | 25 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 250.00 |
Fall of Wickets: 61-1 (Rickelton) | 81-2 (Dhir) | 88-3 (Rohit) | 149-4 (Rutherford)
PBKS Bowling:
| Bowler | O | R | W | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arshdeep Singh | 4 | 29 | 0 | 7.25 |
| Marco Jansen | 4 | — | 1 | — |
| Xavier Bartlett | 3.4 | 41 | 0 | 11.17 |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | 4 | — | 1 | — |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 4 | — | 2 | — |
Result: Mumbai Indians won by 6 wickets
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
