Kolkata Knight Riders’ spinners first but the brakes on Mumbai Indians before the top order took the game by the scruff of the neck during the chase against Jasprit Bumrah and co, knocking off the 156-run target at a canter. KKR’s top order, especially Rahul Tripathi and Venkatesh Iyer, were in destructive mode and dominated a high quality and experienced bowling attack, winning by 7 wickets with 29 deliveries to go.
Iyer scored 74 not out as KKR moved into the top four with a couple of big wins. MI fell to sixth after the defeat.
Asked to bat first, Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock got the defending champions off to a solid start – cautious initially before picking up the pace towards the end of the powerplay.
Rohit, who missed the first game, started off with a stylish boundary off the first ball before going through the gears in the fourth over. De Kock took a liking to Prasidh Krishna in the sixth over as MI finished the powerplay with 56 on the board.
A couple of tight overs later, the openers went after Andre Russell, taking the score to 78 before an attempted hit over long on from Rohit (33) landed in Shubman Gill’s hands off Sunil Narine, giving KKR a much need breakthrough in the 10th over.
De Kock and Suryakumar Yadav added another 11 runs before the right-hander perished, caught behind of Krishna for 5.
The South African then went on to notch up his half century in the 14th over with a crisp hit of Lockie Ferguson. The defending champions had the perfect platform for the likes of Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard to take charge.
Krishna though had other ideas and packed of de Kock, who was caught by Narine for 55. Ishan Kishan promptly smashed Russell for a six of the first ball of the next over but was could not control another hit in the next over. Lockie Ferguson struck with Russell taking the catch as the southpaw was dismissed 14. Kieron Pollard was joined by Krunal Pandya and ended the 17th over with the score at 121/4.
Pollard then took Krishna to the cleaners, the duo had exchanged a few words at the end of the 16th over, scoring 18 in the over with Dinesh Karthik dropping Krunal as well.
Russell got smacked for a six by Krunal in the 19th MI added 10 runs in the over, before Ferguson and Eoin Morgan combined to run out Pollard (21) with 4 balls to go. Krunal was caught in the deep off the next delivery for 12 before Saurabh Tiwary rounded off the innings with a boundary. MI posted 155/6.
In response, KKR’s openers Gill and Venkatesh Iyer started off firing on all cylinders, as Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah and Adam Milne were all carted with relative ease. Bumrah however struck at the end of the 3rd over, dismissing Gill (13) with the score at 40.
Iyer was joined by Rahul Tripathi, and the duo continued pretty much in the same manner – pouncing on every chance to free their arms. Rohit and Mumbai were worried as KKR’s batters were scoring at a brisk pace well after the powerplay as well. Even taking the pace of the ball didn’t work as Krunal Pandya got hit for 12 in his 3rd over as KKR motored along to 97/1 after 9 overs.
Iyer, who was playing his second game in the IPL, not only played the powerful shot but also mixed it up with some delicate dabs and was being matched by Tripathi, shot for shot, as even the ace Bumrah found the going quite tough. At the midway stage KKR were 111/1, well on course for the win.
Off the next over, Iyer completed his maiden fifty and then Tripathi got to his too with an edge off an attempted sweep to Bumrah that went over the keeper for a six. He followed that up with another boundary but Bumrah bounced back to knock over Iyer for 53 from 30 deliveries. KKR at the time were 28 runs away from the win. Iyer had smashed 3 sixes and 4 boundaries and pretty much blunted the opposition attack and placed his side on the cusp of a comprehensive win.
Tripathi at the other end continued with his merry ways and started off the 13th over with a huge six of Rahul Chahar as KKR ended the over with 17 runs, as Morgan got in the act with a maximum too.
Morgan and Tripathi however could not finish the job with the skipper being dismissed by Bumrah for 7 in the 15th over.
Nitish Rana and Tripathi however put the seal on the win in the 16th over with a boundary of Rohit Sharma. KKR romped home to a big win and moved up to fourth on the table.
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