Mumbai Indians (MI) faced Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday in IPL 2021 Phase-2. The match started with KKR winning the toss and electing to bowl. Batting first, Mumbai scored 155/6. KKR had a target of 156 runs, which the team easily achieved at the loss of just 3 wickets with 29 balls to spare.
With the win in the match, Kolkata has moved up to the fourth position in the points table with 8 points, while Mumbai Indians have moved up from fourth to sixth position.
Chasing the shining target in Kolkata’s victory , Rahul Tripathi batted brilliantly and played an unbeaten innings of 72 runs in just 42 balls. In his innings, Rahul hit 8 fours and three sixes. This was Tripathi’s 7th half-century in the IPL.
Iyer Creates Tehelka
KKR’s opener Venkatesh Iyer played a blistering innings of 53 runs in 30 balls. He hit four fours and three long sixes in his innings. Iyer had completed his maiden IPL fifty in just 25 balls. Iyer and Rahul Tripathi shared a partnership of 88 runs in 52 balls for the second wicket.
Needing 156 runs to win, KKR made a scintillating start, courtesy Shubman Gill and Iyer, and moved to 40 in 17 balls. However, the partnership was broken as Jasprit Bumrah disturbed the timber to send Gill packing.
Tripathi, who joined Iyer in the middle, made sure that KKR did not lose the momentum. The right-hander and Iyer added 23 runs in the final three overs of the powerplay as KKR moved to 63/1.
Gill-Iyer’s stormy start
KKR’s first wicket fell as Shubman Gill (13), his wicket came in the account of Jasprit Bumrah and he bowled Gill on a slow ball. Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer added 40 runs in just 3 overs before getting out.
MI could have scored a big score
Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock played a partnership of 78 runs for the first wicket. Looking at the pair, it seemed that Mumbai would easily be able to score 200+, but the entire team could only manage a score of 155/6. After the first wicket, the team lost the last five wickets for 77 runs.
Rohit was dismissed by Sunil Narine after scoring 33 runs off 30 balls. This was the 7th time in IPL and 9th in T20 format when Rohit’s wicket has come in Narine’s account. After the hitman’s wicket, the famous Krishna picked up the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav (5) and Quinton de Kock (55), who completed his 16th half-century. Ishan Kishan (14) also could not do much and gave his wicket to Lockie Ferguson. Pollard played an innings of (21) runs, but he too could not support the team till the end. Krishna and Lockie Ferguson, famous for KKR, managed to pick up two wickets each.
