News Analysis India

Tag: KKR vs MI

  • Pat Cummins equals record for fastest IPL fifty as KKR beat Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets

    Express News Service

    CHENNAI: Pat Cummins’ record in death overs is no secret. In 26 innings, he has operated at 10.23 RPO in death overs in the Indian Premier League. But, on Wednesday, against Mumbai Indians, it was different. Going into the final four overs, Cummins had bowled three, conceding 26 runs up until then. On a pitch that had a bit of extra bounce, the Australian Test skipper, along with Umesh Yadav and Rasikh Salam had bowled extremely well in the first half of the innings.

    Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma had accelerated since and Mumbai was pushing towards the 150-run mark when Cummins came on to bowl the final over. First ball, full and wide, Suryakumar edges one behind. In comes Pollard. Cummins delivers a wide yorker, dugout for two. Another wide yorker follows, but this time Pollard was ready for it. He gets under it and smacks it over long-on. Eight off three.

    Cummins tries to go wider and bowls a wide, forcing him to change the length for the next. A couple of runs followed off the fourth. 11 off four deliveries against Pollard isn’t all that bad. But the story wasn’t over. The pacer went short and wide, Pollard pulled with all his might only to top-edged it over third-man for a six. 17 off five now. Cummis reacts and goes fuller. Pollard once again goes hard and this time the leading edge brings the same result.

    In an over where he did hardly anything wrong, Cummins ended up conceding 23 runs from five balls and a wicket. From 138 for three, Mumbai went on to finish with 161/4. But he knew, such things happen in the shortest format.

    “Welcome to T20 cricket,” he would say after the match, before adding, “we would have taken 160 at the start of the innings.”

    In fact, at that point, he wouldn’t have known that his more significant performance in the match was yet to come.

    Mumbai had reduced Kolkata to 101/5 in 13.1 overs. Tymal Mills had removed Andre Russell. Venkatesh Iyer was still batting, but they still needed 61 runs from 41 balls. In comes Cummins and sneaks a single of his first. That was the only inconsequential ball of the innings. From there one, every ball he faced was an event.

    The fifth ball of that over was on the slot and Cummins smacked it over the shorter boundary on the leg side for six. Mills went fuller and wider. Cummins followed, slicing it between gully and third-man for a four.

    Mumbai still had two overs of Jasprit Bumrah. But that didn’t bother the Australian. He played out a couple of deliveries before launching the Indian pacer over deep-midwicket. Much like Mills, Bumrah, too, went full and wide, but an outside edge was enough for Cummins to secure a boundary. By the end of that over, the equation had come down to 35 off 30 with Cummins batting at 22 from 8 balls. It seemed like it was his day with the bat. And everything he’s touched would turn gold.

    What followed was just madness. Rohit Sharma brought Daniel Sams and Cummins was ready for it. Six, four, six, six followed off his bat, all on through the leg-side. The chase was all but done in those four deliveries. The pressure led Sams to bowl a no-ball, off which Cummins scored just two, thanks to Suryakumar’s effort on the ropes.

    A four and a six followed as Cummins brought up the joint-fastest fifty ever in the IPL, smashing 35 runs in that over. It was an exhibition of ball striking, especially against pace. From 101/5 after 13.1, Kolkata went to 162/5 in just 18 balls.

    Mumbai had one over of Murugan Ashwin left at that point. They could have used him against Cummins, but it was all irrelevant as their head coach Mahela Jayawardene said after the match.

    “Hindsight is a great thing, but with short leg-side boundaries, Cummins could hit those sixes with the equation that was there. Maybe, we could have stuck with those hard lengths rather than using variations,” he said after the match.

    Maybe Ashwin could have made a difference, maybe not. Either way, the way Cummins started with the bat, it was just one of those days where all one could say was that the knock was just meant to be.

    Brief Scores: MI 161/4 in 20 overs (Suryakumar 52, Tilak 38 n.o; Cummins 2/49) vs KKR 162/5 in 15 overs (Cummins 56 n.o, Venkatesh 50 n.o)

  • Relatively unknown southpaw Venkatesh Iyer produces another solid hand, engineers comfortable win for KKR

    Express News Service

    CHENNAI: Who is Venkatesh Iyer and where has he been all this while? That is the question on everyone’s lips after the 26-year-old left-hander produced another stroke-filled innings for Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday. After an unbeaten 41 on his IPL debut against Royal Challengers Bangalore in KKR’s previous game, Iyer once again came to the fore to deliver a seven-wicket win for his side, this time against a Mumbai Indians attack that includes the likes of Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah and Adam Milne. He smashed 53 entertaining runs off just 30 deliveries to set up the chase of 156 while Rahul Tripathi also came to the fore with an equally entertaining 74* in 42 balls. 

    While Tripathi is a known commodity in the IPL, it is Iyer’s sudden impact from seeming obscurity that has made people sit up and take notice. 

    The towering reputations in Mumbai’s line-up did not seem to faze him one bit. His very first ball on Thursday was disdainfully dispatched to the deep square leg boundary for six. It did not seem to matter that the bowler was Boult, whose ability to swing the new ball keeps far more experienced players on their toes. The man from Madhya Pradesh — whose family is originally from Tamil Nadu — started in top gear and never slowed down, batting as though this was just a game in the streets of his neighbourhood in Indore.

    As his age of 26 illustrates, Iyer is certainly not a greenhorn on the domestic circuit. He made his debut for Madhya Pradesh in the shorter formats as far back as 2015 while his first-class debut came in 2018. Having not featured for KKR in the India leg, it remains unclear why he was not utilised earlier as well as what changed between then and now. Now that Iyer is getting his moment in the spotlight, he is certainly making the most of it.

    KKR’s comprehensive win overshadowed the efforts of the Mumbai openers. Rohit Sharma, who was returning for this game, combined well with Quinton de Kock to stitch together a partnership of 78 and provide a strong platform for the Mumbai middle-order. They certainly had the ammunition to reach a score closer to 180, but the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya floundered.

    The Kolkata attack, to its credit, did well to fight back after the initial onslaught from Quinton’s blade in particular. The spin duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine were exemplary yet again, conceding just 42 runs between them in eight overs with a wicket to boot. Lockie Ferguson, too, made a stirring comeback after an expensive first over that went for 11 runs.

    Hardik’s absence a slight worry

    When Hardik Pandya missed the first game of the UAE leg against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday alongside skipper Rohit Sharma, coach Mahela Jayawardene had played down any concerns by saying that they were down with just minor niggles. While Rohit returned for the game against KKR on Thursday, Hardik’s continued absence from the playing XI may be a cause for concern. With the T20 World Cup coming up, Hardik’s contributions — with both bat and ball — will be vital for India to harbour hopes of going all the way.

    Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 155/6 in 20 overs (Q de Kock 55; L Ferguson 2/27) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 159/3 in 15.1 overs (R Tripathi 74 n.o., V Iyer 53; Bumrah 3/43).

  • Kolkata Knight Riders steamroll Mumbai Indians to enter top four

    By PTI

    ABU DHABI: Rookie Venkatesh Iyer left many in awe of his talent as Kolkata Knight Riders produced a clinical performance for the second successive game since IPL’s resumption to tame the mighty Mumbai Indians by seven wickets and enter the top-four in the points table here on Thursday.

    Iyer (53 off 30), playing his second IPL game, displayed the wide range of his strokes alongside Rahul Tripathi (74 not out off 42) to enable KKR to chase MI’s modest total of 155 for six with as many as 29 balls to spare.

    Quinton de Kock struck an entertaining 55 for MI before KKR bowlers bounced back in the last 10 overs, conceding 75 runs and taking five wickets.

    Shubman Gill and Iyer gave KKR another flying start with the first two overs bowled by Trent Boult and Adam Milne going for 15 runs each.

    Gill flicked Boult for a delightful six while Iyer pulled the New Zealand pace spearhead to set the tone for the rest of the innings.

    While Jasprit Bumrah found Gill’s stumps in the third over, Iyer went on to play a memorable knock comprising four boundaries and three sixes.

    Iyer and Tripathi shared an 88-run stand for the second wicket which completely shut the door on MI, who suffered their second loss since IPL’s resumption.

    Earlier, MI skipper Rohit Sharma (33 off 30) got off the innings in scintillating fashion, caressing a Nitish Rana delivery on to the mid-off boundary.

    The skipper, who was in sublime touch in the Tests in England, had not played the opening game against CSK.

    Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya did not start once again, raising questions about his fitness.

    Rohit took the attack to mystery spinner Varun Charkravarthy with two consecutive fours in opening two deliveries of the fourth over.

    De Kock was not to be left behind as he matched his skipper stroke for stroke, pulling a Lockie Ferguson delivery over the fence for the first maximum of the match.

    Introduced into the attack in the sixth over, Prasidh Krishna was taken to task by de Kock, hitting the medium pacer twice over the fence to pick up 16 runs from his first over as MI cantered to 56 for no loss.

    De Kock seemed unstoppable as he welcomed Andre Russell with consecutive fours.

    Morgan bowled out trump card Chakravarthy by the 11th over (4-0-22-0) with MI not losing a wicket against him.

    Sunil Narine was also tidy giving away only 20 runs in four overs.

    With de Kock going hammer and tongs, Rohit played the second fiddle and scored 33 runs off 30 balls before Narine got his man for the ninth time in T20s, holing out to Shubman Gill at the boundary.

    KKR pulled things back between 10-15 overs, conceding only 26 runs and picked up two wickets.

    Pollard, as he often does, came up with much needed big hits in the last five overs, including a flat batted six over mid wicket in Krishna’s 18-run over.

    Ferguson bowled a brilliant last over for KKR, removing the dangerous duo of Pollard and Krunal Pandya (12) at the cost of only six runs.

    MI collected 49 runs from the last five overs.

  • Kolkata Knight Riders opt to bowl, Rohit Sharma returns to lead Mumbai Indians

    By PTI

    ABU DHABI: Kolkata Knight Riders opted to bowl against Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League here on Thursday.

    Rohit Sharma, who missed the team’s opener against Chennai Super Kings, returned to lead Mumbai while KKR did not make any changes from the last game against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

    Hardik Pandya once again did not feature in Mumbai’s playing XI.

    Mumbai Indians: Quinton de Kock, Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Saurabh Tiwary, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult

    Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna

  • We are going to learn from it: KKR all-rounder Andre Russell after defeat against Mumbai Indians

    By ANI
    CHENNAI: After a disappointing 10-run defeat against Mumbai Indians at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday, Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Andre Russell said that the side will learn from their mistakes and will do better in the coming games.

    Mumbai Indians defeated KKR by 10 runs thanks to an all-rounder bowling performance from the Rohit Sharma-led side. Russell’s five-wicket haul had bundled Mumbai Indians out for 152 after batsman Suryakumar Yadav’s (56) quickfire knock. In response, KKR were restricted to 142/7.

    KKR were right on the track for an easy win but Rahul Chahar spun a web and removed the top four batsmen before Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult’s fiery spell handed Mumbai Indians the match.

    “Yeah, I support that (Shah Rukh Khan) tweet but at the end of the day the game of cricket… you are not sure until it’s over. I think we are still confident, we still played some good cricket and I am proud of the boys. You know, we are definitely disappointed but it’s not the end of the road, it’s only the second game and we are going to learn from it,” Russell said in the virtual post-match press conference.

    “I just think it’s a game of cricket. I have played hundreds of T20 games and I have seen games where teams cruise in on the driver’s seat and then suddenly lose a few wickets, new batters come in and struggle to get away and that’s what happened tonight,” he said.

    “So, we definitely have to learn from this as I have said before. We will look to make sure that who’s in, stays in and once we learn from all these mistakes that happened tonight we will definitely do better because we have a good team. I have trust and confidence in the boys,” the all-rounder added.

    Rusell further said the wicket was not the easiest to bat on and for him also it was challenging.

    “You have to try and stay as still as possible, be open-minded. It is a difficult wicket to bat on and it is not easy for a new batsman to come in and start the hitting from ball one. It is very challenging, even for me the ball was a bit up and down. It is not the easiest wicket to bat on, no matter how good you are you still need a couple of balls to actually get your eye in,” he said.

    KKR will next play against Royal Challengers Bangalore here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on April 18.