Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Mumbai Indians after 12 years at the Wankhede Stadium. The bowlers were phenomenal on the night as KKR got the job done pretty comfortably in the end. On a track, that had a lot to offer to the bowlers, the Shreyas Iyer-led side managed the condition well in the second innings and picked up a 24-run win over their arch-rivals.
Batting first, the Knight Riders were nowhere in the contest for the first 30 minutes. Nuwan Thushara ran havoc with the new ball as he picked up three crucial wickets of Phil Salt, Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Shreyas Iyer. Jasprit Bumrah supported him well and picked up three wickets as well but couldn’t stop the pair of Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey. The duo stitched a crucial partnership of 83 runs, which ultimately made the difference in the end.
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KKR eventually posted 169 runs on the board, which at the halfway mark looked 20 runs short, but in the end, proved enough. The KKR bowlers had a fantastic night with the ball as the trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Mitchell Starc were phenomenal. Narine and Chakravarthy bowled in tandems to stop MI’s juggernaut in the middle overs while Starc gave the final blow, which helped KKR win the game and strengthen their position at number two on the points table.
1. Mumbai ka Raja kaun?
When KKR were 57/5 in the first innings, no one gave them a chance to bounce back. However, Venkatesh Iyer, who hit a century against MI in IPL 2023, once again reigned supreme as he made 70 runs off 52 balls, which helped KKR post a healthy total on the board. Impact Player Manish Pandey supported him well as he made 42 runs, which helped KKR massively with the bat.
2. Form is temporary, class is permanent
Mitchell Starc, who was trolled mercilessly throughout the season for his poor performance and price tag, picked up four wickets against Mumbai and played a crucial role in KKR’s win. Narine and Chakravarthy helped him well with wickets in the middle overs but it was Tim David’s wicket in the end which was crucial, and Starc got that done.
3. Exceptional captaincy
Shreyas Iyer once again showed that he has a brilliant cricketing brain. The way he rotated bowlers tonight deserves a lot of appreciation. Giving the ball to Narine and Chakravarthy in the powerplay was a risky yet crucial call, which helped KKR pick some early wickets. The decision to bowl Andre Russell at the right time was also important, and he took all the bold decisions and eventually, it paid off.
Losing skipper Hardik Pandya said:
I mean obviously in the batting inning, we couldn’t form partnerships and kept losing wickets, in T20s if you don’t form partnerships, it will cost you. Not much, there are a lot of questions but that will take some time to answer but for now, not much to say. As you mentioned, the bowlers did a fantastic job, the wicket got a little better after the first innings, the dew came on. We will go through the game and see what could we have done better. You keep fighting, that is what I tell to myself, never leave the battlefield, tough days come but good also come here, it’s challenging but challenges make you better
Winning skipper Shreyas Iyer said:
Just having a conversation with Starcy. Told him how important this game for us. If we lost this, would've had to win two out of four. Would take this anyday. Beautiful victory for us. Hope we could've cherished this one. But we have a match day after as well. Certainly, with this impact player rule, it has helped us in this game. Manish has been eyeing an opportunity from Day 1. Today he got it. We got to a commendable total. All I had to say to the boys was we can defend it with our bowling lineup. They were unreal to be honest (on the two spinners). Absolutely spot on in terms of execution with line and lengths. He's been eagerly waiting to go out and express himself in earlier games as well (on Venkatesh Iyer)
POTM Venkatesh Iyer said:
As a professional cricketer, I have to be flexible in terms of situation. When I started hitting the ball well, two more wickets fell and I thought I have to play the anchor role. This is the fourth or fifth time Manish has padded up. This time he got to bat. Rather than sending Russell and Ramandeep higher, better to have Manish who can play the anchor role. Ball was holding and it was a two paced wicket. I try to be a smarter cricketer. Would've been easy for me to go after Piyush Chawla and the fast bowlers. Team needed me to be there till the end. I've been a huge fan of dada. Went to ask him about my stance and technical aspects. Was a fruitful conversation. It's coming through in my stance and other aspects in the nets.
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