Mumbai Indians celebrate the fall of a wicket. (BCCI)
New Delhi: Making heavy weather of games seem to have become a habit for Mumbai Indians this season and that was again on display on Sunday when they took the game right to the death before emerging winners against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium. Chasing 181, KKR finally finished on 168/6 as MI won by 13 runs and registered their fourth win of the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League to stay afloat in the tournament.
Unlike MI, Kolkata didn’t have the best of starts as they lost Chris Lynn (17) in the 3rd over with the score on 28. It was a long hop from Mitchell McClenaghan and Lynn could have hit it anywhere in the park. Shubman Gill (7) was dismissed off the very next over by Hardik. The score read a dismal 28/2 for KKR.
But the misfortune turned tabled very soon as Mayank Markande dropped a sitter from Robin Uthappa’s bat as the batsman was batting on 4. The bowler Hardik Pandya wasn’t too pleased. That was the beginning of a nice little partnership between Nitish Rana and Uthappa as the two put on 84 runs as Kolkata looked to be cruising. Having hit a few 30s early in the season, Uthappa finally brought up his first 50 of the season when it mattered most for the team. But luck ran out soon as Markande was the one who dismissed Uthappa (54) caught by Ben Cutting.
Nitish Rana (31) was dismissed off the very next over, once again Hardik Pandya picking the important wicket. After that it was a chase to the finish as the score moved from 60 off 30 balls to 23 off the last 6 balls with skipper Dinesh Karthik at the crease. But interestingly, Rohit handed the ball to Krunal.
But Krunal was ready for the task as he sent the dangerous Sunil Narine (5) back to the hut as he failed to clear Rohit in the in-field. With 19 needed off 4 balls, Chawla walked into the crease, but Karthik was on strike. The skipper missed one as the scoreboard read 19 off 3. The next one went over the point fielder for a boundary. And the score reads 15 needed off 2 and with Karthik missing the next one, it was a little too much late in the day as Mumbai celebrated a well-deserved win.
Earlier, Dinesh Karthik won the toss and decided to put Mumbai into bat. It was a brilliant start at the top from the MI openers as both Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis started well. While they respected the good balls and avoided playing rash shots, they made most of the bad balls and sent them into the stands. They mixed caution with aggression as the score read 56/0 after the powerplay.
In no time, the duo looked to be running away with the game as the score read 91/0 in the 10th over when Andre Russell dismissed Lewis (43) against the run of play. The slower ball did the trick as Lewis skied the ball for Chris Lynn to complete an easy catch at short third-man. Rohit Sharma once again failed to make it count as he was sent back for 11 as he skied a sweep off Sunil Narine for substitute Rinku Singh to complete an easy catch. The scoreboard suddenly read 106/2 in the 12th over.
Suryakumar was joined by Hardik Pandya as the two started to get the innings back on track before the business end of the innings. But things weren’t that easy as the opener started to feel the cramps and struggled. The struggle finally saw him give away his wicket as Russell picked his second wicket.
Once again, it was just outside the off-stump and looked like the batsman wanted to cut that fine to the third-man boundary, only to edge the ball to Dinesh Karthik behind the wicket. Suryakumar (59) left with Mumbai needing to get back on track before the death overs. Last match’s hero Krunal Pandya failed to rise to the challenge this time round and Narine got the better of the batsman as Shubman Gill completed a good catch at long-on.
With Krunal gone for 14 and three overs still left in the innings, it was important for JP Duminy to go all out from the word go and he tried to do just that as he combined well with Hardik to put on 30 runs for the fifth wicket as the Mumbai innings ended on a competitive 181/4 after 20 overs. Hardik was unbeaten on 35 and Duminy on 13.
IPL 2018, MI vs KKR Highlights - As It Happened
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