Mumbai Indians pacer Jasprit Bumrah was the star of the day for his sensational five-wicket haul that left Kolkata Knight Riders reeling at the end of the innings. But alas, his brilliance went in vain with the MI batters not stepping up to the task.
Just before the game, the five-time Indian Premier League champions were dealt with a huge blow as their in-form batter Suryakumar Yadav was ruled out of the remainder of the season due to a forearm injury. Ramandeep Singh replaced him in the playing XI, while KKR reverted back to their players with whom they played at the start of the season.
The changes worked for them immediately, with their opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer getting the team off to flier. The latter was the aggressor taking the attack to the opposition. The duo added 60 runs for the opening wicket inside powerplay overs before Venkatesh was snaffled by Kumar Kartikeya.
The runs continued to flow even then as Rahane played second fiddle to Nitish Rana. However, the former threw his wicket away, trying an enterprising reverse sweep only to get bowled around the legs of the chinaman bowler. Rahane did well to hold on to one end but perished when he was just about to accelerate the scoring.
Nevertheless, Rana playeds ome gorgeous strokes to keep the scoreboard ticking. In the meantime, Shreyas Iyer came and went, with M Ashwin ripping one past his willow and Ishan Kishan taking a good catch. But with Rana hitting sixes at will, KKR were sitting pretty at 136/3 after 14 overs.
This is when Bumrah came back to finish his remaining three overs and wreaked havoc in the Kolkata camp. He hit the deck hard and at pace to dismiss the likes of Rana, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson, Pat Cummins and Sunil Narine in the space of 10 balls of his second spell.
In no time, Bumrah had a five-wicket haul to his name, including a triple-wicket maiden in the 18th over that halted KKR’s progress completely in the death overs. He ended with brilliant figures of 5/10 in his four overs as Kolkata could only reach 165/9 in their 20 overs despite setting themselves up for an even bigger score not long ago.
In the chase, Mumbai were rocked early, with Rohit Sharma getting out caught behind in controversial circumstances. Their most consistent batter of the season, Tilak Varma, got out before the powerplay ended, forcing Kishan and Ramandeep Singh to rebuild the innings.
In the process, the required run-rate shot up and the pressure got to the batters. Though Kishan scored his third half-century of the season, he got out soon after scoring 51 off 43 deliveries. The pitch wasn’t easy for the new batters, and with the required run-rate going up constantly, the batters looked for big shots only to perish.
MI collapsed from being 100/4 to 113 all-out in just 21 deliveries, eventually succumbing to their ninth loss of the season. Cummins (3/22) and Russell (2/22) bowled well for KKR, picking up crucial wickets.
With this 52-run win, KKR have somehow managed to stay alive in the competition and now have 10 points to their name after 12 matches.
Brief scores
Kolkata Knight Riders 165/9 in 20 overs (Iyer 43, Rana 43, Bumrah 5/10) beat Mumbai Indians 113/10 (Kishan 51, Cummins 3/22) by 52 runs
