MI vs KKR, IPL 2021: Kolkata were riding high against the defending champions Mumbai as they give a bitter seven wickets defeat. Rahul Tripathi, Venkatesh Iyer, and Lockie Ferguson were the stars of the show.
Kolkata winning the toss, as we have seen till now, decided that they will like to chase the target.
Quinton de Kock’s electric inning was beginning to discourage the decision to bowl first. Quinton’s(55) knock included some fantastic shots. His trademark pick-up shots were the best of them.
Prasidh Krishna tried to tackle the South African opener with his off cuter slower ball. He did successed when Quinton tried to pull it half-hearted towards mid-wicket. Before that, Krishna got rid of Suryakumar Yadav with the very first delivery of his spell.
But the damage was done in the middle overs, when Ferguson was introduced. First he got Ishan Kishan, who tried to drag a well wide delivery towards mid-wicket, second was Krunal Pandya, who found himself facing a slower ball while barely managing to clear half-way past the inner circle.
MI managed to reach the 155 runs with a last ball boundary from Saurabh Tiwari. Rohit Sharma(33) completely his 1000 runs agaisnt KKR, Who is the first player in history of IPL to score a thousande run agaisnt any one franchise. He also cleared the 5500 runs milestone. However, the form he showed at the start was cooled of by Sunil Narine getting him out for the record ninth time.
Venkatesh Iyer(53), playing his second IPL match, shines again with the bat. A fifty run milestone was crossed in just mere 25 balls. Which includes three monsterous hits and 4 classy boundaries.
Rahul Tripathi(74*) was very impressive taking on almost every bowler he faced. His slog sweeps against the spinner duo was comendable. The Maharashtrian batter had a fine night and that too on a winning cause and being unbeaten.
Picking up all the three wickets of the innings, Jasprit Bumrah was the only starer for the MI bowling attack. Using his slower deliveries with perfection he got rid of Iyer’s opening partner Gill in his first over. Iyer wating on backfoot was surprised by the slower ball to get his castle wracked.
Spinner were fairly ineffective for MI as KKR batter had easy going on them. Nothing was working for MI as well as luck was in KKR’s favour.
The intention KKR has shown after the restart is mind blowing. They want to win at any cost. With Morgan leading the side is also helping them.
KKR with two consecutive wins stands just inside the playoff spot at the moment on net run rate. On the contrary, MI, started at fourth, are now pushed down to the sixth spot. Although KKR, RR, and MI all are having the same 8 points, but RR having a game in hand.
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