MUMBAI: After failing to defend 206 in their last game against Delhi Capitals at the same Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, the pressure was on the Punjab Kings bowlers.

On Monday, they were up against an in-form, experienced Mumbai Indians batting line-up.

Led by an excellent display by Arshdeep Singh, the PBKS bowlers made amends despite the challenge of playing back-to-back games within 48 hours at the fag end of a gruelling tournament. After skipper Shreyas Iyer opted to bowl, the PBKS bowlers restricted MI to 184. Six of MI's top seven batters got a start, but none could break free. Suryakumar Yadav was the top-scorer with 57 off 39 balls (6x4, 2x6) but he was also made to work hard for his runs.

Powered by a rollicking 109-run second wicket partnership off 59 balls between opener Priyansh Arya (62 - 35b, 9x4, 2x6) and Josh Inglis (73 - 42b, 9x4, 3x6), PBKS stormed to a seven-wicket win with nine balls to spare to guarantee themselves of a top-two finish.

The teams that finish No.1 and 2 in the points table face in Qualifier 1 on May 29 and the winners of that match go straight into the final. MI have also qualified for the play-offs by finishing fourth in the table with 16 points.

MI's defence of their total of 184 didn't start well. New ball operators Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult were targeted by the Punjab team openers Prabhsimran Singh and Arya. Chahar and Boult conceded 16 and 17 runs respectively in their first two overs.

Skipper Hardik Pandya introduced his pace ace Jasprit Bumrah in the fifth over and the talismanic player got the breakthrough straightaway. Prabhsimran got a thick outside edge while trying to hit a slower off-cutter outside off-stump to be caught by Ashwani Kumar.

Arya, however, found good support from new batter Josh Inglis. Santner and Pandya were taken for 14 runs each in the seventh and eight overs to take the total to 75/1, leaving PBKS needing 110 off 72 balls.

Bumrah was excellent though. He bowled a superb 10th over, conceding just five runs for figures of 2-0-6-1 at that stage. Runs were leaking from the other end, however. At the halfway mark, Inglis was going strong on 35 (23b) and Arya on 37 (21b).

When Inglis dismantled Ashwani Kumar in the 11th over with reverse sweeps for three successive fours to bring up the team's 100, it was clear-cut advantage for the red brigade. Pandya too proved expensive, conceding 29 runs in two overs. The two had conceded 31 runs off the 11th and 12th overs and the asking rate was now down from 9.6 to 8.1. In a rollicking second wicket stand, Arya completed his fifty off 27 balls and Inglis off 29 balls.

When Arya finally fell at the score of 143 at the start of the 15th over, PBKS had an easy target of 42 off 35 balls with eight wickets in hand.

The real fight was seen in the first half of the game when MI were batting. While Surya and Co were steady, they were unable to break free. MI conserved wickets in the hope of cashing on later in the innings but the big overs didn't come as expected. Only time they broke free was in the 19th when Naman Dhir hit two sixes and Surya two fours to get 23 off Vijaykumar Vyshak.

Arshdeep bowled an excellent final over to his India T20 captain Surya, claiming two wickets for three runs. The left-armer was effective with the new ball too and returned with fine figures of 4-0-28-2. Vyshak was expensive in the end but had started well. In his first over, the seventh of the innings, he gave away just three runs. He came back for the 11th over and conceded only five runs while picking up the wicket of Tilak Varma.

For MI, Surya continued his remarkable consistency. Having started the season with question marks over his form following low scores for India, he has turned around his form for his best-ever IPL season, bettering his tally of 605 in 2023. He was on 583 before the game and the 57-run knock took him to 640.