Xavier Bartlett has suffered the unenviable misery that so many death-over bowlers experience in the batter-friendly world of the IPL as he got smashed for three sixes in five balls while the Punjab Kings crashed to their latest defeat in Dharamsala.
The Ricky Ponting-coached side with a strong Australian influence, who'd begun the campaign with victories in their first six completed matches, looked desperately to Bartlett to stop them free-falling to a fifth consecutive loss as they threw him the ball for the final over, with Mumbai Indians still needing 15.
Alas for the Gold Coast allrounder, Will Jacks pumped his first ball, a full toss, over long off for six, and Tilak Varma smote him for another maximum over extra cover with a remarkable strike off the fourth delivery and then swivelled to hit his wayward short one over the fence at long leg for the winning blow.
It meant the luckless Bartlett had ended up going for 0-53 off his 3.5 overs, with Mumbai powering past Punjab's not inconsiderable 8-200 with a ball to spare and six wickets in hand.
Bartlett has been finding it difficult, having a combined analysis of 1-214 off his combined 15.5 overs in the last four matches, which have been mirrored by his team's continuing struggles as they've dropped to fourth in the table.
On Friday, Punjab, who had been squeezing Mumbai effectively, succumbed to left-hander Varma's blistering late hitting as he cracked an unbeaten 75 off just 33 balls, aided by Jacks' 25no off 10, which gave Jasprit Bumrah a winning debut as stand-in captain of the already eliminated Mumbai.
Earlier, Prabhsimran Singh (57 off 32) had capitalised on getting two lives and Azmatullah Omarzai added 38 in his first IPL game of the season for Punjab, but Cooper Connolly didn't have one of his super charged days as he laboured -- by IPL standards at least -- to 21 off 22 balls before being bowled.
Bumrah led Mumbai in the absence of Hardik Pandya, who is still recovering from back spasms, while Suryakumar Yadav went home due to personal reasons after the last game.
But while Bumrah didn't pick up a wicket in his four overs, Shardul Thakur took 4-39 before Bartlett did his bit with the bat for Punjab -- 18no off seven, with two fours and a six -- to help Punjab amass 53 off their final three overs.
Marcus Stoinis was dropped for the encounter, after his previous disappointing display at Dharamsala in the loss to Delhi when he was out for one and went for 1-44 off his three overs.
