Mumbai Indians defeated Kolkata Knight Riders. (Source: IPL)Kolkata Knight Riders were eliminated from Indian Premier League 2019 after suffering a nine-wicket defeat against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. With the win, MI managed to finish at the top position in the table in the group stages.
Toss:
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bowl. KKR made one change – bringing in Prasidh Krishna for Piyush Chawla. Mumbai made two changes – replacing Mitch McClenaghan for Evin Lewis and Ishan Kishan for Barinder Sran.
First innings:
Andre Russell failed to deliver when it mattered the most as Kolkata Knight Riders scored a sub-par 133 for 7 in their ‘do-or die’ IPL game. KKR’s top run-scorer of this IPL, Russell (510 from 13 innings) was dismissed for a first ball duck as the visiting side frittered away a good start to post a modest total after being sent into bat.
Openers Chris Lynn (41 off 29 balls) and Shubman Gill (9 off 16 balls) put up 49 runs together in 6.1 overs but KKR suffered a middle-order collapse as Mumbai bowlers made a splendid comeback. It was left to Robin Uthappa (40 off 47 balls) and Nitish Rana (26 off 13 balls) to stitch a 47-run stand for the fifth wicket to take KKR past the 120-run mark. Lasith Malinga (3/35), Hardik Pandya (2/20) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/31) were the main wicket-takers for the home side.
Second innings:
As far as chases go, this one was particularly an easy one for MI. Rohit Sharma hammered an unbeaten 55 in 48 balls as he took his side past the target with 23 balls still to spare. He was assisted well by former KKR man Suryakumar Yadav who made an unbeaten 46 in 27 balls to give Mumbai a nine-wicket win.
Prasidh Krishna managed to scrape a consolidatory wicket for KKR with KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik taking a sprinting catch. But overall, it was completely MI’s day, and they managed to chase down the total with much ease.
Gamechanger:
Chris Lynn gave a good start to KKR with the bat. The Australian struck two towering sixes off leg-spinner Rahul Chahar in the sixth over as KKR finished the Powerplay at 49/0. However, Hardik brought the home side back into the match by removing both the openers in quick succession. While he trapped Gill in front of the wicket in the seventh over, he sent back a dangerous Lynn in the ninth over, caught by Quinton De Kock, as Kolkata slumped to 56/2. And in the 13th over, Malinga gave KKR a double blow by removing skipper Dinesh Karthik (3 off 9 balls) and in-form Russell (0 off 1 ball), who gloved to keeper de Kock.
Captains speak:
Dinesh Karthik | KKR skipper: We didn’t find momentum after the 6-over mark while batting. We didn’t really get going to be honest. Wickets falling didn’t help either and we simply didn’t get going. When we batted, the wicket wasn’t easy for stroke-making. The Mumbai bowlers were good at bowling cutters and they exploited that extremely well. The dew in the second innings made batting easier slightly, but that’s not an excuse. There was an opportunity to bat up the order for Andre Russell, but expecting him to deliver every time is unfair and he has been fantastic throughout the tournament for us. It’s all about attitude (about his running catch), and the will to win, but sometimes things don’t go your way. Not out best season, there are a lot of areas for us to improve on, and I’m sure we will come back stronger next year.
Scorecard: Kolkata Knight Riders (Lynn 41, Uthappa 40; Malinga 3/35); Mumbai Indians (Sharma 55, S Yadav 46; Krishna 22/1)
