Gayle finds his groove, Henriques shines in new role

The Punjab Kings have ended a three-match losing streak and handed defending champions Mumbai Indians a nine-wicket thrashing in the Indian Premier League as 41-year-old Chris Gayle got back in the groove.

The Punjab bowlers, including Australian Moises Henriques (0-12 from three overs) had set up Friday's win by limiting Mumbai to 6-131 and it proved no problem for the Kings, whose captain KL Rahul (60 not out off 52 balls) and evergreen Gayle (43 not out from 35) guided them home with 14 balls to spare.

It meant that Punjab joined Mumbai in mid-table with two wins from their five matches.

Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav had earlier threatened a decent total for Mumbai but their departures in quick succession late in the innings - Yadav to a top edge for 33 off 27 balls then Rohit for 63 off 52 - stymied the team's ambition.

Mumbai scored only 4-34 off the last five overs, three overs being notably miserly from fast bowler Mohammed Shami (2-21 from four), while Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Hooda and Henriques also made notable contributions.

Henriques, playing just his second game of the season, was a surprise choice to open the bowling and bowled nine dot balls in his three overs to start the match as Mumbai's top order of Rohit, Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan crawled to 1-21 in the six-over Powerplay.

Punjab, in contrast, made a brisk start to the chase, taking 15 off Krunal Pandya's first over.

Gayle joined Rahul at 1-53 in the eighth over and they were tied down for five overs by Rahul Chahar and fellow spinner Jayant Yadav.

Then Gayle hit Yadav for successive boundaries, Rahul smoked Kieron Pollard over the fine leg fence, and the run-rate required was comfortable again.

The batsmen finished it in a hurry when Gayle hit Trent Boult over deep midwicket and Rahul smashed the fast bowler over long on and angled the winning runs to the third man boundary.

Rahul cracked three boundaries and three sixes, while the 'Universe Boss' Gayle, back in his element, hammered five fours and two sixes.