MUMBAI: Riding on the 83-run stand between Venkatesh Iyer-Manish Pandey followed by Mitchell Starc’s pure pace magic Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) registered a 24-run victory against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.
Starc made an extraordinary comeback in the tournament returning with a figure of 4-33 in just 3.5 spells. KKR ended their 12-year wait for a win at the Wankhede stadium with a 24-run win to edge closer to the playoff spots.
Mumbai faced a surprising collapse with the top order again failing to score. With his 56, Suryakumar Yadav was able to revive the team, but following his collapse, everything simply went south, and Mumbai ultimately suffered a humiliating loss.
Chasing a target of 170 runs, Rohit Sharma came out to bat as an Impact Player. After being hit for a four and a six Mitchell Starc made a brilliant comeback with a fuller delivery angling into the MI opener and rattling the leg stump of Ishan Kishan for 13 runs.
Naman Dhir played four dot balls before getting off the mark with a four on the leg side on the bowling of Vaibhav Arora however the batter fell prey to Varun Chakaravarthy’s crafty spin in the fifth over of the game.
Sunil Narine then got the batter of Rohit as the spinner removed the MI opener for 11 runs. Chakaravarthy came from around the stumps and threw full at the off stump tempting Tilak Varma to play a shot. The spinner was finally successful when Tilak edged straight to short third where Sunil Narine took a simple catch in the 9th over.
With losing wickets at regular intervals, Mumbai Indians crumbled in the chase.
Andre Russell bowled a good length delivery and dismissed MI captain Hardik Pandya for 1 run off 3 balls.
Suryakumar Yadav along with Tim David shifted gears for Mumbai as the duo slammed boundaries at regular intervals, gathering runs for their team. The duo steadied the chase ship for Mumbai as Suryakumar smoked 4-6-4 off Vaibhav Arora, gathering 20 runs to bring up his half-century and bring the home team back in the game.
Russell bowled a full toss at knee height to Suryakumar but the batter mistimed it in the air before Phil Salt took a brilliant catch running behind.
Mitchell Starc in his last over crumbled MI as he removed Tim David (24), Piyush Chawla (0) and Gerald Coetzee with a trademark yorker to bundle Mumbai out for 145, giving KKR a 24-run victory.
Earlier put to bat first, while standing on the verge of missing out on playoffs, MI walked into the Wankhede stadium with a different mindset. Nuwan Thushara’s first over showed the first glimpse of the different body language that MI players had on the field.
After putting KKR to bat, Thushara got the breakthrough by removing Philip Salt (5) in the first over with Tilak Varma taking a stunning catch.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi sent the ball into the stands for a towering six to repair the damage of the early blow. In the third over, Raghuvanshi punished Thushara for wavering off his line and length with a six to silence the vibrant blue waves.
Yet it was Thushara who had the last laugh, he claimed Raghuvanshi’s (13) wicket on the next ball with a slower one. KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer (6) showed intent by finding the fence on his first ball of the innings. Two balls later Thushara with a bit of in-swing got the better of Iyer as the ball flew to the right of Tim David.
Sunil Narine tried to stick to his usual hard-hitting approach and cleared the ropes on MI skipper Hardik Pandya’s first ball of the innings. Pandya struck back by dislodging the stumps on the next delivery to increase KKR’s woes.
KKR managed to put 57 runs on the board at the end of the powerplay but at the cost of four wickets. The opportunity was staring right at Rinku Singh’s face as he had ample time to rebuild KKR’s innings. But Piyush Chawla’s spin made the left-handed batter walk back to the dressing room with a score of 9(8).
Manish Pandey was called in as an impact substitute to give themselves a chance to put a competitive total on the board. With Venkatesh Iyer on one side, the duo stitched up a 50-run stand in the 13th over. Pandey opened his arms in the next over by making Jasprit Bumrah his target.
He flicked the ball towards the fence for a four on the first delivery and a ball later he managed to clear the boundary line. With a single Venkatesh raised his bat for fifty in the 16th over. With the game in its climax, Pandey (42) tried to go berserk and push for extra runs. He smacked Pandya for a six on the first ball of the 17th over. But lost his wicket a ball later after miscuing his shot.
Pandey’s dismissal invited Andre Russell to the crease and he didn’t waste a single second to get into the action. He opened his innings with a six and took a single on the next ball. Venkatesh matched Russell’s intent and cleared the rope by flicking it over wide long-on.
On the final ball, a moment of confusion led to Russell’s anguish as he got run out. Venkatesh was focused on watching the ball, and Russell ran straight for a single. Venkatesh saw Russell and made him go back to the non-striker’s end. KKR’s star hitter failed to get across the line in time and walked back with a score of 7.
Venkatesh tried to compensate by picking up a couple of boundaries in the next overs but fell to Bumrah on the second last ball of the innings for a score of 70.
Brief Score: KKR 169 (Venkatesh Iyer 70, Manish Pandey 42; Jasprit Bumrah 3-18) vs Mumbai Indians 145 (Suryakumar Yadav 56, Tim David 24; Mitchell Starc 4-33). (ANI)