An era of waiting is over. After 12 years, Kolkata Knight Riders won by 24 runs at Wankhede, the ground of Mumbai Indians. The former two-time IPL champions saw success on the Mumbai field with Mitchell Starc’s fire bowling over Suryakumar Yadav’s struggle.
Kolkata were bowled out for 169 runs in 19.5 overs thanks to the bowling of Nuwan Thusara and Yashpreet Bumrah. The visiting team was in danger after losing 5 wickets for 57 runs. Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey’s 83-run partnership brought Kolkata back into the fight. This pair broke when Manish got out after scoring 42 runs off 31 balls.
Kolkata lost the last 5 wickets by 29 runs. Venkatesh scored a maximum of 70 runs with one ball left in the innings.
Bumrah and Thusara took maximum three wickets each for Mumbai. Hardik Pandya took two wickets.
Kolkata created pressure by taking 6 wickets of Mumbai for 71 runs despite not being able to give any big target. Then Suryakumar and Team David countered to turn the match around. Suryakumar hit one ball after another over the boundary. At one point the target was reduced to 50 runs off 28 balls.
Andre Russell broke this pair of 49 runs in the 16th over. Suryakumar, who scored a 30-ball half-century, stopped after playing 5 more balls. His innings of 56 off 35 balls had 6 fours and 2 sixes.
But Mumbai continued to fight with the bat of David. In the 19th over, the Australian batsman hit the gallery with a six off Starc’s first ball. The target fell to 28 runs off 11 balls. But IPL’s most expensive player dismissed David and Piyush Chawla with two consecutive full tosses. David got out after scoring 24 runs off 20 balls. Chawla makes a call. Although Bumrah did not allow a hat-trick, Starc bowled Gerald Coetzee in the fifth ball to give Kolkata a victory. Hosts all out for 145 in 18.5 overs.
Starc was Kolkata’s best bowler with four wickets for 33 runs in 3.5 overs.
Mumbai are in second place with 14 points after their seventh win in 10 matches. After playing one more match, Mumbai is at number 9 with 6 points.
