England all-rounder Ben Stokes has said that he hopes that the wickets in use for the Indian Premier League (IPL) do not get worse and teams are able to consistently score around 160-170. His comment comes as pitches used in Chennai have produced low-scoring games this season and a powerhouse batting lineup like Mumbai Indians has not been able to register a score of 170-180 even once in the five games played at Chennai.
"Hope the wickets don't get worse as the @IPL gets deeper into the tournament..160/170 minimum not scraping to 130/140 cause the wickets are trash," tweeted Stokes. Stokes has been ruled out of the ongoing IPL as he suffered a finger injury while playing for his side Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings.
KL Rahul and Chris Gayle played unbeaten knocks of 60 and 43 as Punjab Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by nine wickets with 14 balls to spare here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday. Mayank Agarwal also chipped in with a knock of 25 from 20 balls and the only wicket for Mumbai Indians was taken by Rahul Chahar as he dismissed Mayank.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav played knocks of 63 and 33 respectively as Mumbai Indians posted a score of 131/6 in the allotted twenty overs. Kieron Pollard remained unbeaten on 16 to take MI's score past the 130-run mark. For Punjab, Mohammed Shami and Ravi Bishnoi scalped two wickets each. The next match for Punjab Kings will be with Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) in Ahemdabad.
