KKR batting collapses in mammoth run chase, MI win by 102 runs

Hosts Kolkata Knight Riders run the risk of slipping away when they face resurgent defending champions and 'nemesis' Mumbai Indians in an IPL clash,

Match summary

Mumbai Indians produced a brilliant bowling and fielding performance after Ishan Kishan's batting pyrotechnics as they thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by 102 runs to keep themselves in the hunt for a play-offs berth in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

Sent into bat at the Eden Gardens, defending champions MI scored an imposing 210 for 6, riding on 19-year-old Kishan's 21-ball 62, studded with five fours and six sixes, and then bowled KKR out for 108 in 18.1 overs. 

Krunal Pandya and his brother Hardik returned with figures of 2/12 and 2/16 respectively while all the other five MI bowlers took a wicket each as they excelled as a bowling unit. 

After today's match, their third on the trot, MI jumped to fourth spot with 10 points from 11 matches. KKR also have the same 10 points from 11 matches but they are below MI at fifth on inferior net run rate.

Chasing an imposing target of 211, KKR suffered a batting collapse under some fine bowling and fielding show by MI who needed a win to keep afloat in the tournament. 

Chris Lynn and Nitish Rana top-scored with 21 each while all the other KKR batsmen came a cropper. Their highest partnership was 31 between Lynn and Uthappa (14) for the second wicket.

KKR made a disastrous start to their run chase as Sunil Narine (4) was out in the second ball, top-edging a Mitchell McClenaghan short delivery to Krunal Pandya. Lynn and Uthappa was going strong for some time. But a horrible mixed up in the fourth over led to Lynn being run out as the home side were reduced to 32 for two.  

The two wickets meant KKR were lagging behind in the powerplay overs as they could score just 47 from the first six overs at the expense of two wickets.

Uthappa was the third batsman to go as he hit straight to Suryakumar Yadav at deep midwicket off a Mayank Markande delivery in the seventh over and Andrew Russell followed suit the next over, after being deceived by a Hardik Pandya slow delivery. 

KKR were in deep trouble by then with half of their batting line up gone in the ninth over for just 67 runs. Captain Dinesh Karthik (5) could not extricate his side and he was run out in the 10th over. 

McClenaghan then held on to a brilliant running catch to dismiss Rana the next ball and the match was as good as over for KKR by then.

The asking rate has gone up to an impossible 20 with the tails up but the match lingered on a bit before Krunal Pandya wrapped up the match by dismissing Kuldeep Yadav (5).    

Earlier, Ishan smashed a 17-ball half-century as MI overcame a slow start to post an imposing 210/6.

Ishan tore apart KKR bowling, especially Kuldeep Yadav who was clobbered for four consecutive sixes, en route to his 21-ball 62 (5x4, 6x6) as MI scripted a turnaround in the middle overs.

A hint of MSD in Ishan Kishan https://t.co/yFYw9ah5gq via @ipl #KKRvMI #IPL2018

— Deepak Raj Verma (@iconicdeepak) May 9, 2018

The momentum shifted in favour of MI in the 14th over that yielded 25 runs with Ishan making a mockery of chinaman Kuldeep's bowling. The bulk of Mumbai's runs -- 148 -- came from boundaries.

First, Ishan swept Kuldeep high over deep square leg, then smashed across the line, followed by stepping out to hit the bowler over long on to get to his fifty -- the joint second fastest of the season with Sunil Narine.

Ishan ended the over with a helicopter shot that would surely make his Ranchi mentor MS Dhoni smile as MI scored 73 runs in five middle overs to reach to 145/3 in 15 overs from being a modest 72/2 midway into their innings.

After Ishan, it was Cutting show as he hit the first three balls of the final over for a six each en route to his nine-ball 24 (1x4, 3x6) as MI finished on a high with 22 runs in the final over bowled by Piyush Chawla.

Kuldep retrurned most expensive with 43 runs from his three overs, followed by Chawla who took 3/48 but was at his expensive best. 

But the picture looked different midway into MI's innings with Sunil Narine (1/27) giving them the initial edge after Dinesh Karthik opted to chase.

Openers Suryakumar Yadav (36) and Evin Lewis (18) once again gave MI a flying start with the KKR pace trio of Andre Russell, Prasidh Krishna and Tom Curran leaking 24 runs in the first three overs.

Chawla gave the breakthrough in the sixth over as Mumbai batsmen looked to break free against the leg-spinner who accounted for both the openers. Mumbai were 62/2 inside nine overs.

MI batting summary

Ishan Kishan smashed a 17-ball half-century as Mumbai Indians overcame a slow start to post an imposing 210/6 against Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL fixture here today.

Ishan tore apart KKR bowling, especially Kuldeep Yadav who was clobbered for four consecutive sixes, en route to his 21-ball 62 (5x4, 6x6) as MI scripted a turnaround in the middle overs.

The momentum shifted in favour of MI in the 14th over that yielded 25 runs with Ishan making a mockery of chinaman Kuldeep's bowling. The bulk of Mumbai's runs -- 148 -- came from boundaries.

First, Ishan swept Kuldeep high over deep square leg, then smashed across the line, followed by stepping out to hit the bowler over long on to get to his fifty -- the joint second fastest of the season with Sunil Narine.

Ishan ended the over with a helicopter shot that would surely make his Ranchi mentor MS Dhoni smile as MI scored 73 runs in five middle overs to reach to 145/3 in 15 overs from being a modest 72/2 midway into their innings.

After Ishan, it was Cutting show as he hit the first three balls of the final over for a six each en route to his nine-ball 24 (1x4, 3x6) as MI finished on a high with 22 runs in the final over bowled by Piyush Chawla.

Kuldep retrurned most expensive with 43 runs from his three overs, followed by Chawla who took 3/48 but was at his expensive best.

But the picture looked different midway into MI's innings with Sunil Narine (1/27) giving them the initial edge after Dinesh Karthik opted to chase.

Openers Suryakumar Yadav (36) and Evin Lewis (18) once again gave MI a flying start with the KKR pace trio of Andre Russell, Prasidh Krishna and Tom Curran leaking 24 runs in the first three overs.

As has been their ploy, Narine came inside the powerplay  and cleverly deceived the batsmen with his guile to restrict the run flow with nine runs from his first two overs.

Narine set up the stage for an ordinary-looking Chawla to give the breakthrough in the sixth over as the desperate Mumbai batsmen looked to break free against the leg-spinner who accounted for both the openers. Mumbai were 62/2 inside nine overs.

But then came Ishan who hit top gear, dealing with only fours and sixes in his whirlwhind half-century.

Toss

Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and opt to field first against Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

The hosts have made a couple changes with Rinku Singh replacing injured Shubman Gill and Mitchell Johnson making way for English pacer Tom Curran.

The visitors, on the other hand, have fielded the same squad that emerged victorious against Kolkata in the previous encounter in Mumbai.

MI playing XI: Evin Lewis, Rohit Sharma (C), Ishan Kishan (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, JP Duminy, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Mayank Markande, Jasprit Bumrah.

KKR playing XI: C Lynn, S Narine, R Uthappa, N Rana, A Russell, D Karthik, R Singh, T Curran, P Krishna, P Chawla, K Yadav

Preview

Unfortunately, Kolkata Knight Riders have to run in to Mumbai Indians side that is on its peak, not once but twice in the same week. After suffering a 13-run loss at the Wanhede Stadium on Sunday the two sides will meet again at the Eden Gardens in the return leg on Wednesday.

A lot is at stake for both the sides. While Mumbai are facing a do-or-die situation since the last two matches, hosts KKR have the risk of slipping away in the race the play-off.

KKR have an onerous task at hand as they need to defy history against Mumbai Indians, who have won 17 of the 21 matches against the hosts across 11 seasons -- the most wins for an IPL team against any opponent.

Their 13-run defeat at the Wankhede on May 6 stretched their losing streak to seven matches and 1125 days -- KKR's last win over Mumbai Indians was way back on April 8, 2015.

While KKR are fast running of time, the most successful IPL franchise, MI, are peaking at the right time, a revival that's quite akin to their triumphant campaign in 2015 when the Rohit Sharma-led side won seven of their last eight matches en route the title.

Both teams have four matches left in the round-robin league, but KKR have won five matches one more than MI as a loss for any of the two sides may complicate their play-off aspirations.

For KKR to overcome the past, Sunil Narine once again will have to play a crucial role both with the bat and ball.

A dehydrated Narine had to bat lower down the order in their previous clash and it did not help their 182-run chase. Narine will look to be back at the top and set them up with a fiery start.

Sharma is a vital cog in MI's batting as Narine will be KKR's answer with his exploits against the opponent skipper who has been dismissed six times by the Trinidadian.

But Narine will need more backing from the other bowlers especially their pacers who have been a big let down this season.

Be it veteran Mitchell Johnson or Tom Curran, both have been expensive, while all-rounder Andre Russell seems to be underbowling to preserve his troubled hamstring.

Shivam Mavi was forced to sit out with a finger injury and in his absence Prasidh Krishna did a reasonable job as it remains to be seen whether the U19 World Cup winning pacer would be back in action.

With 71 required from 48 balls and a well-set Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana in the middle, KKR's chase looked under control before they were done in by a barrage of short balls.

Both Rana and Russell got out to short balls and were dismissed with addition of just 19 runs after Uthappa's fall to derail their chase which seemed achievable.

Hardik Pandya, who has 14 wickets from nine matches, will be a threat with both his smart bowling and aggressive batting.

Ben Cutting was expensive with the ball with Uthappa easily smashing him for four boundaries in a row as a specialist bowler in Mustafizur Rahman may seem to be a better choice.

Uthappa's first half-century (54) after 10 matches may seem to have given their fragile middle-order some relief as captain Dinesh Karthik will hope to get their act together.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (C), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, R. Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi, Tom Curran.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Evin Lewis, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McLenaghan, Mustafizur Rahaman, Jasprit Bumrah, Akila Dananjaya, Ben Cutting, JP Duminy, Rahul Chahar, Sharad Lumba, Adam Milne, Siddhesh Lad, Md Nidheesh, Mohsin Khan, Anukul Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Tajinder Singh, Aditya Tare, Saurabh Tiwary.