Mumbai Indians 186 for 5 (Kishan 58, Suryakumar 43, Suyash 2-27) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 185 for 6 (Venkatesh 104, Shokeen 2-34) by five wickets
That meant Knight Riders finished below par and Kishan’s powerplay dominance (58 off 25) made it even worse for them. Suryakumar, the stand-in captain, then showed glimpses of his best (43 off 25) with solid contributions from Tilak Varma and Tim David to polish off the win.
Venkatesh ends KKR’s century curse
Sometimes intent matters more than timing. Or so it seemed in Venkatesh’s case. Walking in after N Jagadeesan fell for a duck early, he hit Tendulkar and Cameron Green for sixes to race away to 19 in 8 balls.
He often charged out of hise crase, using his reach to convert length balls into fuller deliveries, and even if he wasn’t timing it, he was clearing the boundaries. He also survived some inside-edges that whizzed past the stumps for four, including the ball that got him to fifty in 23 deliveries.
Another six off Meredith in the 14th over took Venkatesh to 94, but he wouldn’t reach his century till his 17th, with Mumbai’s bowlers squeezing him and Shardul Thakur with three tight overs. When he got there, he presented a wide grin and acknowledged the crowd.
He couldn’t stay till the end though. In the 18th over, an attempted reverse scoop off Meredith resulted in an easy catch on 104 for short third.
Chawla leads Mumbai’s bowling effort
Suryakumar chose to bowl at the toss. Tendulkar took the new ball and got it to swing early. He bowled six dots and finished 0-17 in two overs. Green kept tight lines and Shokeen’s offbreaks to two left-handers kept one end quiet.
Trying to increase his strike-rate, Rahmanullah Gurbaz was caught at short third off Chawla. Then things got heated when Nitish Rana was dismissed by his state team-mate Shokeen. Shoekeen went on to remove Shardul Thakur, slog sweeping to the deep and Rinku Singh couldn’t repeat his recent heroics either, making only 18.
It was Venkatesh’s hitting – a total outlier in the Knight Riders innings – that had kept them on course for a 200+ score, but Shokeen, Chawla and Jansen bowled three tidy overs between 15 and 17 to take some momentum out from the batting innings. Russell faced only 11 balls after walking in at No. 7 and hit 21 unbeaten runs to set Mumbai 186 to win.
Ishan’s burst and Rohit’s ‘Impact’
Rohit, who didn’t start the game due to a ‘stomach bug’, walked in as opener after Mumbai activated their Impact Player. He was very nearly caught-and-bowled by Umesh Yadav off his first ball. For most of the powerplay, he was spectator to Kishan’s thrashing of Knight Riders’ bowlers before falling for 20.
Kishan punished Shardul for 4, 4, 6 through the off side in the second over. He then showed his leg-side play with a four and six off Umesh in the third. When Narine came in to bowl the chase’s fourth over, he was hit for 22 with Kishan going 6, dot, 6, 4 through slogs. He got his fifty in 21 balls.
Kishan then smashed Varun Chakravarthy for six to move to 58, but when he tried to repeat it, he was bowled.
But the openers had done their job. According to ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster, Mumbai were 30% favourites to win the game at the start of the chase. By the time Kishan and Rohit were gone, Mumbai were 87 for 2 in 7.3 overs – now 70% favourites.
Tilak, SKY bring it home
The blazing start gave both batters the liberty to start cautiously but the big hits came out soon enough, with Suryakumar punishing wide deliveries with cuts for four and Tilak slog sweeping Narine at the start of his second spell for six over square leg.
Otherwise, they were cautious against spin through the middle overs with Rana being forced to use his best bowlers early. When Lockie Ferguson took the ball, Suryakumar brought out some vintage shots, picking up a full ball for six over fine leg and repeating it next ball over midwicket. Tilak and Suryakumar then picked off Russell for 17 in one over.
Their partnership of 60 in 6.2 overs deflated Knight Riders, and after they were dismissed, David made a dash for the finish. His 24 in 13 balls sealed the deal with 14 balls to spare and gave Mumbai a net-run rate boost.
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx
Source: ESPN Crickinfo