IPL 10 KKR vs MI: Mumbai breaks Kolkata's chasing streak with 9-run win

Kolkata: Mumbai Indians (MI) sealed an impressive 9-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Indian Premier League (IPL) match, breaking their winning streak at the Eden Gardens while chasing, here on Saturday.

KKR had last lost a match at their home ground while chasing was back in 2012, that too against MI.

With this victory, Mumbai has fixed itself at the top slot in the IPL 2017 points table with 10 wins and 20 points in 14 matches. Kolkata, however, remains at the third position, due to their overconfident approach to the huge 174-run target.

Hardik Pandya played an essential role in restricting KKR, which did not let its scoring rate go down despite losing wickets at regular intervals, as he gave only 22 runs in four overs for 2 wickets. He gave away only 4 runs in the final over of the inning, when KKR required 14 runs to win.

Tim Southee and R Vinay Kumar, who were tried by MI in the last match of the league stage, also plucked two wickets each for 39 runs in four overs and 31 runs in 3 overs, respectively. Mitchell Johnson and Karn Sharma also managed one scalp each in their spells. Krunal Pandya, however, remained wicket-less in his two overs which went for 14 runs.

Southee got rid of dangerous opener Sunil Narine in the very first over of the inning. He also did not give any runs in that over, to toughen chase for Knight Riders. The strangest thing did by Kolkata batsmen was to keep taking risks despite losing wickets at regular intervals.

Came in was skipper Gautam Gambhir (21 off 16, 3 fours, 1 six), who added 41 runs off only 3.5 overs with opener Chris Lynn (26 off 14, 3 fours, 2 sixes). Both of them were back in the dug-out with only 53 runs on the board in 6.3 overs. In between their falls, Robin Uthappa (2 off 4) also went back cheaply.

KKR was reeling under pressure with 4 down on 53, but even this was not enough for the upcoming batsmen to exhibit sensible Cricket and take the team closer to the target before trying to play big shots. Manish Pandey, however, was an exception who scored 33 runs off 33 balls with 2 boundaries and got out in the 18^th over of the match when his team required 25 runs off 17 balls.

Also Read: IPL 10 KKR vs MI: Rayudu, Tiwary shine, Mumbai posts 173

Yusuf Pathan also looked in a hurry and took only 7 balls to score 20 runs with 3 sixes and get back to the pavilion. Colin de Grandhomme also played aggressively scoring 29 runs off 16 balls hitting 4 fours and a six. Kuldeep Yadav, who was also looking good, fell prey to a bad decision by the umpire and returned to the pavilion at the individual score of 16 runs off 15 balls, with 2 fours.

Umesh Yadav (4 off 4) and Trent Boult (5 off 8) remained unbeaten but were not able to guide their team to victory.

Earlier, KKR won the toss and invited MI to bat first. Mumbai got off to a terrible start losing their star opener Lendl Simmons (0 off 5) when there were only 12 runs on the board. Saurabh Tiwary, who was tried today, scored a decent half-century and got out after adding 52 runs off 43 balls with the help of 9 boundaries. Skipper Rohit Sharma once again started nicely to score 27 runs off 21 balls but could not last longer.

Then arrived Ambati Rayudu, who has been out of the playing XI this season, and played an outstanding inning of 63 runs off just 37 balls. He laced his inning with 6 flourishing fours and 3 amazing sixes. He was also named man of the match for his brilliant performance which played the pivotal role in MI posting 173/5 in allotted 20 overs.

Kieron Pollard could only score 13 runs off 11 deliveries today with one six. Hardik Pandya (1 off 2) and Krunal Pandya (0 off 1) remained unbeaten at the crease.

Trent Boult was the pick of the bowlers for KKR as he bagged two wickets for 30 runs in his 4 overs. Kildeep Yadav and Ashish Rajpoot bowled 3 overs each and took one wicket each. They were hit for 25 and 14 runs, respectively.

This defeat, however, has caused no problems for KKR in their way to the playoffs but a win here would have brought them to the second position in the table, ensuring them two chances to qualify for the final of the tournament.