Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians met again in the space of 4 days and this time, it was the former that hosted at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata in the 41st match of IPL 2018. The venue has proved to be lucky for MI and Rohit Sharma and once again, the franchise rode its luck and enforced a comprehensive victory.
Just like the previous game between the 2 sides, Dinesh Karthik asked MI to bat first after winning the toss. The visitors got off to a rollicking start with Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis going after the bowlers. And even though Lewis got out for 18, they had powered their way to 47/1 after the powerplay.
The in-form Suryakumar was at it again and scored 36 off 32 that laid the platform for the middle-order. Rohit Sharma had promoted himself to No.3 while Ishan Kishan batted at 4. The move worked beautifully for MI as Ishan took the KKR bowlers apart. He took a special liking to Kuldeep Yadav and smashed him for 4 sixes in a row and notched up his fifty from just 17 balls.
After 14 overs, the score reached 137/2 and Ishan got out after scoring 62 off 21 courtesy Sunil Narine. Rohit Sharma scored 36 from 31 and while Hardik Pandya fell in the bid to up the ante. Ben Cutting’s cameo of 24 from 9 balls boosted the score to 210/6 after the 20 overs.
KKR batsmen had a mountain to climb and they would have hoped for a good start. But opposite to that, Narine was dismissed by Mitchell McClenaghan off the 2nd ball of the innings. Chris Lynn threatened to strike big but had to depart for 21 due to a terrible misjudgment in running between the wickets.
His downfall opened the floodgates and one by one, every batsman walked in and walked out without scoring plenty. Robin Uthappa, Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana got out before the 10th over and the chase just didn’t have any momentum. MI kept the pressure up throughout the innings and bowled KKR out for 108 in the 19th over to win by a massive margin of 102 runs.
Match Summary
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and opted to bowl first
Mumbai Indians:Â 210/6 in 20 overs
Ishan Kishan 62 (21), Rohit Sharma 36 (31)
Piyush Chawla 48/3 (4), Sunil Narine 27/1 (4)
Kolkata Knight Riders:Â 108/10 in 18.1 overs
Chris Lynn 21 (15), Nitish Rana 21 (19)
Krunal Pandya 12/2 (3.1), Hardik Pandya 16/2 (3)
Mumbai Indians won by 102 runs
Player of the Match: Ishan Kishan
Twitterati hailed the power-packed performance of MI
Thought about that no-ball…yes, the umpire got it wrong. But how about cricket failing him? Everyone saw it…including the umpire (it was shown on the big screen before the next ball was bowled) but he didn’t have the power to seek help or rectify. Unfortunate. #KKRvMI
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 9, 2018
https://twitter.com/IPL/status/994240842553409537
Pretty sure an India ‘A’ T20 team with the likes of Kishan, Samson, Pant, Iyer, Krunal, Gowtham, Rana, Rajpoot, Sandeep, Thampi etc. will give the senior team named yesterday a heck of a game
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) May 9, 2018
He's disappointed is Ishan Kishan but he's changed the direction of this innings for #MI
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 9, 2018
If it is May, it's got to be the #MumbaiIndians @mipaltan
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 9, 2018
What a superb captaincy decision to send Cutting ahead of Krunal and Duminy. Think he has given @mipaltan a decisive advantage here. Super finish. @ImRo45 top move this.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) May 9, 2018
Terrible call! https://t.co/hCsVw5P19d
— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) May 9, 2018
https://twitter.com/harbhajan_singh/status/994241899580948480
Mumbai Indians after first seven matches in every IPL season.#KKRvMIhttps://t.co/fAOBwbbxTg
— Sunil the Cricketer (@1sInto2s) May 9, 2018
#KKR must be wondering what blunder they have done to their own chance of making play-offs!
Absolutely dismal performance at such a critical time; when even net run rate is highly important!@jacqueskallis75 @KKRiders @DineshKarthik #KKRvMI #IPL2018 #VIVOIPL
— Rajul Kaushik (@Rockingrajul) May 9, 2018
Mumbai Indians were struggling after 10 overs but that 20 balls played by Ishan Kishan changed the match #KKRvMI #MIvKKR
— Sandiip Giri (@sandy_giri73) May 9, 2018
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