New Delhi: Mumbai Indians started off on a strong note with an 18-run win in a rain-curtailed IPL match on Saturday to seal a play-off spot against Kolkata Knight Riders, who were later powered by the spin of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy.
Venkatesh IyerAmid disciplined bowling by Mumbai Indians, KKR managed 157/7 in a delayed start that reduced the game to 16 overs per side.
KKR’s main wicket taking spinner Narine prevented Ishan Kishan from blasting Mumbai Indians to 65-6.4 overs in an explosive innings of 22 off as many balls and fourty runs.
In thirteen overs KKR bowlers dismantled half of Mumbai’s line-up; Chakravarthy took two for seventeen and Russell, two for thirty-four restricting them eventually at one thirty-nine for eight sixteenth over alloted.
Harshit Rana (2/34) also chipped in with the ball while Narine’s1/21 included the important scalping of Kishan.
They have now got into top four with two matches left and are consolidated at sixth place on ten-team table with eighteen points that made it their first ever appearance at playoffs since2021.
KKR will aim to finish within top-two with their last two league games against Gujarat Titans (on May 17th) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (May19th).
Their final match will be against Lucknow Supergiants on May 17 wherein they will try hard to avoid recording their ninth loss out of thirteen games played so far
Left-handed opener from Mumbai, Kishan scored brisk five fours and a couple of sixes besides a boundary off Narine but Nalin ultimately had his revenge as he removed him from the equation, which was very crushing for MI.
Narine claimed his first scalp when he deceived Kishan with a knuckleball, which the left-handed batsman swatted to midwicket.
In the following over, Chakravathy ended Rohit’s memorable cameo at the crease before concluding his spell of four overs by dismissing MI skipper Hardik Pandya.
India captain, an influential player as he is, seems volatile even though it may not be manifest in his mood right now-Rohit Sharma.
Rohit ran down the ball during his quick inning but this was no problem for MI since Kishan started attacking KKR with his hard hitting shots.
KKR’s left-arm spinner sent Harshith Rana stumps flying with two fours and sixes as well as took another four and six off him consecutively in next over from Narine.
MI scored 59 runs in five overs without conceding a single run at that stage successfully managing to keep their required run rate exactly 9 runs per over. But then, KKR’s spin duo orchestrated MI’s downfall.
Meanwhile KKR, playing on a sticky wicket for three days earlier lost its opener – Phil Salt –in just seven balls while rain continued pouring on the city (6) and Sunil Narine(0).
Iyer won a good toss on behalf of MI against KKR in their last match due to rain after they had put up their worst opening to the season because of hamstring injury suffered by Iyer.
The highlight of Iyer’s innings came when he hit Bumrah for six runs and two fours each.
Nitish Rana was out injured due to finger injury for ten matches hence missed out after scoring 33 off 23 deliveries alongside Iyer.
However, Mumbai rebounded rapidly to take back control of the game with Piyush Chawla (2/38 in three overs) capturing Iyer and Andre Russell for wicket.
An economy rate of 9.75 was enough for Jasprit Bumrah (2/39 from four overs) to remove Rinku Singh who managed only 20 runs off 12 balls.
