The fantastic display of cricket from batting and bowling department, in general, fetched an all-important victory for Mumbai Indians (MI) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens.
The win against KKR not only grabbed them those crucial two points but also an advantage of Net Run-Rate which will do a world of good for them.
Meanwhile, KKR is on the brink of losing their race to playoffs following some scratchy performances of late.
Mumbai Indians – Ishaan Kishan’s brilliance and Cutting’s cameo put 210 on board
Earlier in the evening on Wednesday (May 9), amidst buzz from the fans, Dinesh Karthik won the toss and asked the visitors to keep the target on board.
Accepting the challenge, both the openers smashed it right from the start but the unfortunate dismissal of Evin Lewis brought back the home side into the game.
Despite the wicket, Suryakumar Yadav went in with his strokes while Rohit Sharma found it tough to whack the ball. Just when KKR were pulling things back, Ishaan Kishan produced a magical knock to keep Indians on top of the game.
However, it was Sunil Narine again who scalped Kishan’s wicket but the stunning piece of finishing from Ben Cutting, in the end, changed the scenario from 180-plus chase to 210.
Southpaw Kishan scored second fastest fifty of IPL and finished with 62 runs in his kitty off just 21 balls. He thwacked 5 fours and 6 sixes while Ben Cutting scored 24 runs off 9 balls.
KKR chase: Run-outs makes a mess of KKR batting order
In reply to the chase, Kolkata Knight were the happy bunch when Sunil Narine smacked the four right off the first ball. But, it was the only moment when KKR were on the positive side as the rest was all for Indians who played with the emotions of KKR fans.
After Narine’s dismissal of 2nd delivery, Chris Lynn, and Robin Uthappa showed a glimpse of keeping the team on track but the good fielding of Mumbai that was coupled by a pathetic calling between the wickets.
Visitors sent Chris Lynn back to the hut while Mayank Markande once again got better off Uthappa.
Andre Russell, who took the crease ahead of Dinesh Karthik was pretty uncomfortable and it all ended within a space of four balls when Hardik dismissed him.
Nitish Rana and Karthik once again repeated the Lynn-Uthappa scenario when skipper walked back by bagging a run-out in his IPL career.
Once the skipper went back to the pavilion, it was all easy for Mumbai as they rattled the rest of the unit with ease thus giving a massive boost to their Net-Run-Rate which will be very useful in a week’s time.