CHENNAI: After their crushing nine-wicket win over Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday night, Punjab Kings (PBKS) moved up to fifth position in the points table, just one spot behind the Mumbai franchise.
They were in seventh place prior to the start of Friday's game.
While both MI and PBKS have won two out of their five matches in the league so far, Punjab are behind Mumbai on inferior net run rate (NRR) due to their heavy losses earlier in the tournament.
The Punjab franchise though managed to improve their NRR from -0.824 to -0.428 whereas MI's NRR dropped to -0.032 from +0.187 before Friday night's match.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) continued to remain on top of the IPL table with four wins in four matches.
The perfect start has helped them reach eight points. Their NRR of +1.009 is a shade lower than Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) +1.142 but they remain ahead of the Chennai franchise on points. CSK have six points from four matches, having won three and lost one, and sit in second place.
CSK are tied on six points with third-placed Delhi Capitals (DC) but their NRR remains the best in the league thus far. CSK have an NRR of +1.142 while DC's NRR is +0.426.
With MI and PBKS in fourth and fifth place, SunRisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals are sixth, seventh and eighth with two points and are separated only by NRR.
SunRisers have an NRR of -0.228, Knight Riders -0.700 and Royals -1.011.