New delhi: Mumbai Indians ticked the winning column destroying Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets with 43 balls to spare at Wankhede on Monday, once again reasserting why the five-time champions are at their best when they are down. Ashwani Kumar stole the limelight, breaking KKR’s spine and returning with figures of 4/24.
Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl. He did not take a step wrong rotating his bowlers and making effective changes. He made an inspired change to the side bringing in debutant Ashwani and Will Jacks. Rohit Sharma came in as an impact sub for MI in place of Vignesh Puthur, thus further bolstering the batting.
Needing 117 to win, MI began their innings in earnest, reaching 46 in 5.2 overs before Rohit was dismissed for 13 by Andre Russell. Ryan Rickelton made amends for floundering earlier, going great guns in the company of Jacks. Rickelton picked his spots hitting sixes and boundaries with consummate ease. He reached his maiden 50 of the IPL off Sunil Narine. A proper half-tracker on leg stump from the Caribbean saw Rickelton hop back, and clobber it over deep mid-wicket to reach his fifty.
Meanwhile, Russell continued to play spoilsport in what looked like a happy run chase when he sent back Jacks for 16 caught at short extra cover by Ajinkya Rahane. But this was a minor glitch in the timeline as Rickelton and Suryakumar made sure that the distance was covered without any further hiccups. Especially Suryakumar, who looked to be in a tearing hurry, reaching 27 off just nine deliveries with three boundaries and two sixes. Sixteen of those came off Russell in the 13th over as MI reached 121/2 to close out the chase. Rickelton remained unbeaten on 62 off just 41 balls. His innings was studded with five sixes and four boundaries.
Earlier, batting first, KKR made a forgettable start to their innings. Narine was dismissed on the fourth ball of the innings with Trent Boult striking early. This brought together skipper Ajinkya Rahane to the crease to join hands with Quinton de Kock.
The second ball of the second over saw Chahar bowl one up that de Kock drove right down the throat of Ashwani in mid-off to make it 2/2 for KKR. Rahane (11) sparkled for a while till he sliced one from Ashwani to backward point for Tilak Varma to take the catch in his second attempt.
Venkatesh Iyer followed soon after trying an upper-cut off Chahar and only
managing to nestle it into the gloves of Rickelton. The first six overs saw KKR reaching 41/4 wickets and MI right on top.
Raghuvanshi was the only batsman who looked comfortable playing some delectable shots all around the ground reaching 26 from 16 balls before trying to pull Pandya in front of the square only to hand over a running catch to Naman Dhir. This brought in impact sub Manish Pandey which also meant that Vaibhav Arora would have to sit out the match. At the first strategic timeout, KKR were 65/5 in 9 overs with Pandey (12 off 9 balls) and Rinku Singh (11 off 9 balls) at the crease.
Rinku (17) returning in the 11th over did not help, giving Ashwani his second wicket and ending a flourishing 29-run partnership with Pandey. Pandey departed in the same over, playing one that was short of good length from Ashwani onto his leg stump to return to the pavilion for 19.
One over later, Ashwani shook Russell’s middle stump to send KKR reeling at 88/8 and notch figures of 4 wickets for 24 runs in 3 overs. KKR’s nightmare finally got over when they were bowled out for 116 in 16.2 overs, with Ramandeep’s 22-run cameo adding some
respectability. agencies