Kolkata Knight Riders kept their faint IPL playoff hopes alive with a four-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians, extending their strong late-season run after a difficult start to the campaign.
Kolkata Knight Riders 148 for 6 (Pandey 45, Bosch 3-30) beat Mumbai Indians 147 for 8 (Bosch 32*, Green 2-23, Dubey 2-34, Tyagi 2-37) by four wickets.
KKR, who failed to win any of their first six games, have now recorded six victories in their last seven matches. Cameron Green and Saurabh Dubey struck twice each in the powerplay before the spinners took control on a surface offering both seam movement and turn.
Chasing 148, KKR suffered early setbacks and lost three wickets inside the first half of the innings. However, Manish Pandey and Rovman Powell both made important scores in the 40s to steady the chase and put Kolkata in control.
The win kept KKR in the playoff race, but their qualification hopes still depend on more than just their own results. They need to beat Delhi Capitals in their final league match and hope that two other results go in their favour.
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Green and Dubey Hurt Mumbai Early
KKR had been one of the most economical bowling sides of the tournament, but they had not been especially quick to take wickets. Before this match, they had not taken more than two wickets in a powerplay even once.
That changed after they won the toss on a pitch that had remained under covers because of rain. KKR chose to use their tall quicks after the almost regular opening over from left-arm spinner Anukul Roy.
Green and Dubey immediately found seam movement and extra bounce. After the first two overs went for only 10 runs, Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma both tried to break free. Rohit sent one into the stands, but Rickelton miscued his shot, allowing Pandey to take another excellent catch at backward point as he controlled the swirling ball.
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Green then beat Naman Dhir’s outside edge twice in a row before finding it with an outswinger, dismissing him for a three-ball duck.
Green remained involved in the next over, sprinting back and to his right for 33 metres to complete an over-the-shoulder catch from Rohit. The ball was full enough, but seam movement and extra bounce created the big edge.
Suryakumar Yadav made perhaps his best start of this IPL, but Dubey came round the wicket and cramped him with seam movement back into the body. Suryakumar played on for 15 off six balls.
Spinners Take Control
Either side of a one-hour rain interruption, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya produced the worst strike rate for a No. 5 and No. 6 pair in an IPL innings where both faced at least 20 balls. It was not because they avoided attacking shots. Sunil Narine and a struggling Varun Chakravarthy were simply too difficult to score from on a pitch that gave spinners turn.
Varun nearly dismissed Tilak caught and bowled, but wicketkeeper Angkrish Raghuvanshi ran towards the chance and distracted him. The catch was dropped, and Raghuvanshi suffered a concussion in the incident.
The miss did not prove too costly for KKR. Kartik Tyagi later had Tilak caught on the pull despite the boundary being only 59 metres away.
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Narine did not have to wait long for his reward. He bowled Hardik through the middle stump, dismissing him for the first time in T20 cricket.
Will Jacks was run out while attempting a second run after hitting the ball straight to Rinku Singh at deep cover. Corbin Bosch then made an unbeaten 32 off 18 balls to lift Mumbai Indians to 147.
MI Stay in the Contest
Finn Allen started aggressively for KKR, driving Deepak Chahar through square cover for two boundaries, but he played on before the opening over was finished.
Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey then formed an unusual partnership. Jasprit Bumrah, who had only three wickets in the IPL before this match, had never dismissed either Rahane or Pandey despite bowling more than 40 balls to each of them. In his first over, the pair struck him for three fours.
Bosch, despite being inconsistent, kept Mumbai Indians in the game by removing Rahane and Green. The ball to Rahane was an excellent length delivery that seamed away and bounced extra, although it followed a poor start to the over in which he gave away nine from the first three balls. He then dismissed Green, who hit a delivery drifting down leg straight to long leg.
Hardik Fined for Equipment Abuse
Hardik Pandya was fined 10% of his match fee and also received one demerit point for breaching Article 2.2 of the IPL code of conduct, adding to MI’s frustrating outing.
The incident took place during the tenth over of KKR’s chase when, “while walking back to his run-up, [he] knocked the bails of the wicket with force”.
Pandey and Powell Take KKR Home
At 54 for 3 after 7.1 overs, with Raghuvanshi unavailable, KKR were under some pressure. But the required rate was still manageable, and dew had started to make things difficult for the bowlers.
Bosch’s first ball to Powell went down leg, and Powell sent it deep into the stands. From there, Pandey’s touch and Powell’s power kept the chase moving away from Mumbai Indians, helped further by fielding mistakes.
Hardik forced a top edge from Powell, but Chahar at fine leg was distracted by deep square leg running towards him in case of a rebound. In the end, neither fielder went for the catch.
In the following over, Bosch lost his footing at slip when Powell cut hard off Raghu Sharma.
Bumrah later produced a superb delivery to beat Pandey through the gap between bat and pad, generating 1.8 degrees of seam movement with a 15-over-old ball. But by then, KKR required only 30 runs from 30 balls.
Bosch then took a brilliant catch at backward point to dismiss Powell, but Rinku Singh and Anukul Roy guided Kolkata through a tense finish with seven balls remaining.
Playoff Equation Still Complicated
The victory marks KKR’s sixth win in their last seven matches after starting the season without a win in their first six games. While they remain in contention, their qualification now depends on winning their final match and other results going in their favour.
