Who won yesterday's Indian Premier League cricket match? An interesting battle was on the cards when Kolkata Knight Riders took on Mumbai Indians as the second-from-the-top team faced the second-from-the-bottom team in the IPL 2024 points table. (As It Happened | Scorecard)
MI captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided to bowl first with his predecessor Rohit Sharma named in the impact sub.
The decision to bowl first was vindicated by Nuwan Thusara who dismissed dangerous Phil Salt in the first over and then got rid of Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Shreyas Iyer in the third over to reduce KKR to 28/3.
Rinku Singh was gone first ball after the powerplay from Piyush Chawla. KKR were forced to use their impact sub and brought in Manish Pandey.
Hardik Pandya then removed Sunil Narine in the fifth over. KKR finished the powerplay with four wickets down but they had scored 57.
Pandey and Venkatesh Iyer then stitched a crucial 83-run partnership to take KKR to 140 in 16.2 overs when the veteran Indian got out to Pandya.
A dramatic run out saw Andre Russell walking back to the pavilion with just seven runs in his two balls. Jasprit Bumrah then took the last three wickets and KKR were bowled out for 169 in 19.5 overs. Venkatesh Iyer was the last man to be dismissed and he scored an important 70.
KKR 169 all out in 19.5 overs (V Iyer 70 off 52, Pandey 42 off 31; Bumrah 18/3, Thusara 42/3)
Mumbai Indians top order failed once again with Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Naman Dhir all getting out in the powerplay without any significant contribution.
Just when things were looking like going out of control, Yadav hit Vaibhav Arora for 20 runs in the 14th over to bring MI back in the game.
KKR spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy kept up the pressure by taking regular wickets. By the 12th over, MI had lost six wickets. Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera and skipper Pandya were the three more men to get out. MI's hopes rested on Suryakumar Yadav and he did not disappoint.
Yadav was racing away with the game alongside Tim David, but Russell came to the rescue for KKR. The West Indian dismissed Yadav, and David could not find his usual hitting form as the required run rate kept getting out of reach.
32 were needed from the last two overs with three wickets in hand but Mitchell Starc took all three wickets in the penultimate over as MI slumped to their eighth defeat of the season while KKR won their seventh game.
Mumbai Indians are all but out of the IPL 2024 playoffs reckoning
Venkatesh Iyer was given the Player Of The Match award for his 52-ball 70 that helped KKR recover from early collapse and post a big enough total.
IPL 2024 Points Table After Match 51
KKR 169 all out in 19.5 overs (V Iyer 70 off 52, Manish Pandey 42 off 31; Jasprit Bumrah 18/3, Nuwan Thusara 42/3) beat MI 145 all out in 18.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 56 off 35; Mtchell Starc 33/4, Sunil Narine 22/2, Varun Chakravarthy 22/2) by 24 runs.
Remaining Matches
Mumbai Indians: vs Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 6 (home); vs Kolkata Knight Riders on May 11 (away); vs Lucknow Super Giants on May 17 (home).
Kolkata Knight Riders: vs Lucknow Super Giants on May 5 (away); vs Mumbai Indians on May 11 (home); vs Gujarat Titans on May 13 (away); vs Rajasthan Royals on May 19 (away).
