Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets to seal their first win in the 2017 Indian Premier League. Chasing a target of 179, MI lost wickets at regular intervals in the middle-overs but Nitish Rana and Hardik Pandya kept their cool and guided their team to a victory with a ball to spare.
The match was a thriller, absolutely warming up the season for the viewers across the globe!
Well, It was definitely not just Hardik Pandya, the hero for the hosts last night at Wankhede but also his brother, Krunal Pandya.
Hardik Pandya took his side Mumbai to their first win with an 11-ball 29 cameo, his brother Kunal picked up three wickets for 24 runs to help restrict the KKR to 178.
Hardik and Krunal had always been the star performers for the franchise, both with bat or ball, they have known to have always made the Mumbai side look extraordinary.Mumbai Indians pulled off a thrilling four-wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders to continue their dominance over their rivals at the Wankhede Stadium.
Mumbai Indians were staring down the barrel at 130/5 after 17 overs. All their hopes were pinned on Keiron Pollard but KKR seemingly dealt a final blow to their opposition with the wicket of the big man. The asking rate was over 16 and at that moment it would have taken many brave men to back MI to get the job done. But it wasn’t until the 18th over that Rana really went after the bowling. He hammered a couple of sixes and a four off Boult’s penultimate over to take him for 19 runs and followed it with a six and four off Rajput to reach one of his most cherished half-centuries.But after he went out, came Pandya to rescue! Pandya took six off the first two balls – Suryakumar Yadav misfielded to concede a four. Next ball, he aired one towards deep square leg but Rishi Dhawan couldn’t hold on to it. Three off two, Pandya swatted the ball towards the fine-leg fence to pull off a sensational chase.
Earlier, Krunal’s brilliant effort with the ball helped put a brake on the KKR’s scoring-rate.
The way Kolkata Knight Riders began, it was as if they had continued from where they’d left off against Gujarat Lions the other night. Skipper Gautam Gambhir and Chris Lynn raced KKR to 44/0 in four overs. Mumbai Indians bowled a few yorkers through Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah but that did nothing to help contain runs.
Mumbai finally broke through with a double wicket over from Krunal Pandya, and that is where Mumbai clawed back in the game.
This was the first instance where a player took a catch off his brother’s bowling in the IPL.Being the only brother duo who plays for the same franchise,both of them set some unique records in the game last day!
Other stats from the MI vs KKR match:
50 – Number of IPL matches hosted by Wankhede Stadium. It became fourth ground to host 50 IPL matches or more after Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium (60), Kolkata’s Eden Gardens (54) and Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla (53).
5 – Number of consecutive IPL matches won by the side batting second at Wankhede – this one and all four last year.
10 – Number of catches Kieron Pollard has taken off Lasith Malinga’s bowling in IPL. Only one bowler-fielder combination has performed even better – 13 catches by Pollard off Harbhajan Singh’s bowling.
5 – Number of times Sunil Narine has dismissed Rohit Sharma in IPL – most any bowler has dismissed a particular batsman in the tournament.
200 – Number of catches taken by Kieron Pollard in Twenty20 cricket – most by any fielder.
147.53 – Kieron Pollard’s strike-rate at the time of completing 2000 runs in IPL (up to the end of innings). Only three players had higher strike-rate while reaching this mark – Virender Sehwag (165.28), Gayle (159.83) and Yusuf Pathan (149.16)
49 – Runs needed by Mumbai Indians in the last three overs (18 to 20) to win. Only one side has scored more runs in the last three overs to win an IPL match while chasing a target. Chennai Super Kings made 52 against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Bengaluru in 2012.
14.28 – Kolkata Knight Riders’ win-percentage against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede – just one win in seven IPL matches.
14 – Number of times Mumbai Indians have beaten Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL – most wins against a particular side in IPL. The details:
Most wins against a particular side in IPL
14 Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders (in 19 matches)13 Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab (in 19 matches)13 Chennai Super Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (in 21 matches)13 Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (in 21 matches)13 Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings (in 24 matches)