Kolkata Knight Riders’ second-half resurgence extended into their penultimate round-robin fixture as they pocketed a crucial win over Mumbai Indians. On a sluggish pitch at the Eden Gardens, the Knight Riders’ bowlers never let MI get away to a par score, before Manish Pandey steadied the ship in his first innings with the bat this season, ensuring a comfortable win. The result has catapulted KKR to sixth on the points table, keeping their playoff hopes alive.
MI fails to entangle KKR's bowling lineup
Opting to field first, KKR began with a couple of tidy overs, as Saurabh Dubey hit the right lengths and generated movement. Cameron Green was welcomed by a Rohit Sharma six but the Australian induced a top-edge off Ryan Rickelton as Pandey covered considerable ground to his left from point to complete an excellent catch. Green struck again as Naman Dhir poked at one well outside the off stump, with the on-field decision overturned via a successful DRS by the hosts.
Rohit sat low and lapped Dubey for a six over fine leg and it looked as though his long-standing love affair with the Eden Gardens would continue. Except, he miscued a slower one to find Green, who completed a very good catch in the mid-wicket region. Suryakumar Yadav began with a couple of exquisite boundaries off Green before unleashing his pick-up scoop over fine leg. But Dubey pulled one back, going around the wicket and getting Suryakumar to drag the ball onto his stumps as MI lost a fourth wicket in the Powerplay. Hardik Pandya swung the first ball like a rusty gate and missed, before picking up a streaky boundary off his second.
KKR didn’t have to use a single over of their spin-twins or the in-form Kartik Tyagi in the Powerplay. And once Sunil Narine came on, Tilak Varma was tied down in multiple knots. There was a sharp spell of rain that interrupted play for an hour but Narine beat Tilak on both edges upon resumption, with Varun Chakaravarthy also keeping the southpaw and Pandya quiet on a deck that aided a lot of spin. It seemed a matter of time before Tilak would be put out of his misery and he duly miscued one, only for Angkrish Raghuvanshi to come in the way of Chakaravarthy, who threw himself at the ball and shelled the catch. Tilak finally put one away for six off his 25th ball – the most a batter has taken to get his first boundary this season, but his laborious 32-ball 20-run stay was brought to an end by Tyagi. Pandya had multiple plays and misses off Green before a ripping Narine off-break cleaned him up, leaving MI at 95/6.
Will Jacks got off to a breezy start before he was run out as he was sent back while trying to complete a second run. But useful runs came towards the back end of the innings as Deepak Chahar sliced a couple of poorly executed wide-yorker attempts by Dubey to the fence, before Corbin Bosch got into the act. The South African dispatched a couple of slot deliveries from Tyagi in the final over before getting a top-edge on the hook which lobbed off his helmet to the fine leg fence. Chahar fell off the last ball of the innings but those critical cameos took MI to some sort of a score to work with on a sluggish deck.
KKR hold up in a tight chase
Finn Allen put Chahar away for a couple of boundaries, cashing in on the width on offer. But Chahar got away with another similar delivery as the New Zealander played onto his stumps. Manish Pandey walked in at 3 owing to an injury to Raghuvanshi, who went off the field earlier as Tejasvi Dahiya donned the ‘keeping gloves. It was Pandey’s first hit out with the bat this season and he had to deal with Jasprit Bumrah getting the ball to hoop around without luck. Ajinkya Rahane endured similar struggles and conditions clearly favoured movement in the air and off the seam with Chahar looking unplayable in his second over. But the senior statesmen relied on timing and placement to pocket three boundaries off Bumrah in the fourth over. Once they got themselves in, the runs came at a brisk pace before Bosch nabbed Rahane in the final Powerplay over as the KKR skipper looked to steer it through the off-side but edged behind.
AM Ghazanfar opened up Green and beat him on the outside edge, suggesting that the pitch hadn’t gotten any better in the second innings – vindicated further by Raghu Sharma extracting turn later on. Green handed Bosch a second wicket as he picked out deep fine leg, but Rovman Powell got off the mark with a first-ball six. Pandya went on the aggressive, deploying a man either at short leg or silly point when Ghazanfar was on. He then brought himself on in the next over and should have had Powell, who heaved one behind square. Except, Chahar and substitute Robin Minz left it to the other to complete the catch, only for the ball to drop right in between them.
Immediately after, Pandey pocketed consecutive boundaries before more would come off Raghu in the 13th over. Powell wasn’t at his fluent best and had another reprieve when a thick edge flew to the left of Bosch, who lost sight of the ball at slip. But he hung around for a scrap as a 64-run partnership with Pandey put the chase beyond doubt.
A quiet Pandya over later, Bumrah cleaned up Pandey for just his fourth wicket of the season. Shortly after, Bosch plucked a stunner at backward point to dismiss Powell. Dahiya then debuted as a concussion sub for Raghuvanshi, getting off the mark with a boundary before Rinku Singh did the same. MI continued to have their moments though as Rickelton dashed all the way into the deep fine leg region to pull off a sensational catch as Dahiya fell for 10. But Rinku remained unbeaten for a fifth successive innings, sealing the job with a boundary down the ground as KKR recorded their sixth win of the season.
SCORECARD: Mumbai Indians 147/8 in 20 overs [Corbin Bosch 32* (18); Cameron Green 2-23, Saurabh Dubey 2-34, Sunil Narine 1-13] lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 148/6 in 18.5 overs [Manish Pandey 45 (33), Rovman Powell 40 (30); Corbin Bosch 3-30, AM Ghazanfar 1-25] by 4 wickets.