Kolkata Knight Riders realised a play-off berth with a convincing 18-run win over Mumbai Indians in a rain-truncated IPL fixture at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. This was the ninth victory for KKR, which tallied 18 points from 12 matches to remain on top of the standings.
The Knight Riders posted a challenging 157 for seven after MI opted to field. With rain forcing the match to start an hour and 45 minutes late, the game was reduced to 16 overs a side.
In reply, MI failed to consolidate on a fine start and finished at 139 for eight.
Domination
KKR, which beat MI in a previous fixture at the latter’s home by 24 runs, thus completed its dominance over the five-time champion in the current season.
MI openers — Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma (Impact Player) – struck a nice partnership and scored 59 in the PowerPlay while tearing apart the KKR pace attack.
The spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy sent back the two batters.
Narine got the vital breakthrough by dismissing Kishan 40 (22 balls, 5×4, 2×6) in the seventh over before Rohit (19 in 24 balls), who was struggling with his shot making, got out to Varun.
MI’s chase lost direction hereafter as the rest of its batting folded up offering little resistance.
Tilak Varma put in his bit with a stroke-filled 17-ball 32 but that was not enough for the visitor to taste success.
Earlier, MI got the ideal start, sending the otherwise explosive KKR opening pair of Narine and Phil Salt back to the dugout in the first seven balls.
Venkatesh Iyer stabilised the KKR innings with a quick-fire 42 (21 balls, 6×4, 2×6) and later on Nitish Rana (33), Andre Russell (24), and Rinku Singh (20) provided a rear charge to take the KKR total past 150, which proved enough in the end.
SCOREBOARD
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Phil Salt c Kamboj b Thushara 6 (5b, 1×6), Sunil Narine b Bumrah 0 (1b), Venkatesh Iyer c Suryakuymar b Chawla 42 (21b, 6×4, 2x6), Shreyas Iyer b Kamboj 7 (10b, 1x4), Nitish Rana run out 33 (23b, 4×4, 1×6), Andre Russell c Kamboj b Chawla 24 (14b, 2×4, 2x6), Rinku Singh c Kishan b Bumrah 20 (12b, 2×6), Ramandeep Singh (not out) 17 (8b, 1×4, 1x6), Mitchell Starc (not out) 2 (2b); Extras (lb-3, w-3): 6; Total (for seven wkts. in 16 overs): 157.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-6 (Salt, 0.5 overs), 2-10 (Narine, 1.1), 3-40 (Shreyas, 4.1), 4-77 (Venkatesh, 8.1), 5-116 (Rana, 11.6), 6-125 (Russell, 12.6), 7-148 (Rinku, 15.2).
MUMBAI INDIANS BOWLING
Thushara 3-0-31-1, Bumrah 4-0-39-2, Kamboj 3-0-24-1, Hardik 3-0-32-0, Chawla 3-0-28-2.
MUMBAI INDIANS
Ishan Kishan c Rinku b Narine 40 (22b, 5×4, 2×6), Rohit Sharma (Impact Player in place of Thushara) c Narine b Varun 19 (24b, 1×4, 1×6), Suryakumar Yadav c Ramandeep b Russell 11 (14b, 1×4), Tilak Varma c Salt b Harshit 32 (17b, 5×4, 1×6), Hardik Pandya c Arora b Varun 2 (4b), Tim David c Shreyas b Russell 0 (3b), Nehal Wadhera run out 3 (3b), Naman Dhir c Rinku b Harshit 17 (6b, 1×4, 2×6), Anshul Kamboj (not out) 2 (2b), Piyush Chawla (not out) 1 (2b); Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-1, w-5): 12; Total (for eight wkts. in 16 overs): 139.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-65 (Kishan, 6.5), 2-67 (Rohit, 7.5), 3-87 (Suryakumar, 10.5), 4-91 (Hardik, 11.4), 5-92 (David, 12.1), 6-117 (Wadhera, 13.6), 7-136 (Dhir, 15.1), 8-137 (Tilak, 15.3).
KNIGHT RIDERS BOWLING
Arora (Impact Player in place of Nitish Rana) 2-0-16-0, Starc 1-0-11-0, Harshit 3-0-34-2, Narine 3-0-21-1, Varun 4-0-17-2, Russell 3-0-34-2.
Toss: Mumbai Indians; PoM: Varun.
KKR won by 18 runs.
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