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As Mumbai Indians (MI) takes on Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a highly-important league stage clash, a lot of eyes will be on PBKS's finisher Shashank Singh, who has been one of the most consistent middle-order batters over last two seasons.
The fate of second-placed PBKS and fourth-placed MI will be decided after their final league stage match at Jaipur on Monday. PBKS, which has 17 points after eight wins, four losses and a no result, and MI, sitting at 16 points after eight wins and five losses, both have a chance to topple Gujarat Titans (GT) and get themselves a double shot at the IPL final. Shashank scored 284 runs at an average of 56.80 and a strike rate of 149.47 with two half-centuries and the best score of 59* in this IPL season. This season, Shashank has been elite in death overs, striking at 195 against pace at an average of 85. Against spin, his strike rate rises to 203. With PBKS having made it to the playoffs, he has a chance to have his best season ever and improve on his 2024 numbers, when he made 354 runs in 14 innings at an average of 44.25 and a strike rate of 164.25, with two half-centuries. However, MI have a great chance at stopping Shashank's rampage, having bagged a total of 33 wickets in the death overs phase this season, the most by a team. In this period of 16-20 overs, they also boast of the best average (15.48), strike rate (9.6) and lowest boundary percentage (19.49%). Their economic rate of 9.64 in this period is only bettered by KKR (9.24). Squads: Punjab Kings Squad: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Josh Inglis(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh, Praveen Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Xavier Bartlett, Kyle Jamieson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Vishnu Vinod, Yash Thakur, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen, Mitchell Owen, Harnoor Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyla Avinash Mumbai Indians Squad: Ryan Rickelton(w), Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Karn Sharma, Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Krishnan Shrijith, Raghu Sharma, Arjun Tendulkar, Robin Minz, Bevon Jacobs. (ANI)
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