Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 148/5 in 20 overs (Pat Cummins 53*; Rahul Chahar 2-18)
lost to
Mumbai Indians 149/2 in 16.5 overs (Quinton de Kock 78*) by eight wickets.
Kolkata Knight Riders suffered yet another crushing loss at the hands of their bogey team, Mumbai Indians in the 32nd match of the Indian Premier League 2020. Don't jump the gun on KKR's 148. For, it was scraped from thin air purely on the grounds of Pat Cummins' resolute 36-ball 53 after a humiliating batting implosion. Quinton de Kock's unbeaten 78 fit the bill nicely in response as MI usurped Delhi Capitals to the crest of the points table on Friday, October 16 at Abu Dhabi.
Morgan the new cook to KKR's broth
KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik had sent ripples through the cricketing fraternity by relinquishing the leadership duties for Eoin Morgan to assume charge, basically with an aim to focus on contributing with the bat. The World Cup winning talisman roped in Shivam Mavi and Chris Green as Tom Banton and Kamlesh Nagarkoti ferried electrolytes. Nathan Coulter-Nile registered his season debut for MI as James Pattinson was rested owing to workload management.
Mumbai keep their rivals under the thumb
The freshly-anointed captain would have only just donned the thinking cap when he had to rush for his batting gear, as KKR's top-order fell flat on its face. Rahul Tripathi, levied back to the comfort zone of the opening slot, smashed the leather off Trent Boult's wide tempter but Suryakumar Yadav at backward point yielded a glorious interception, reverse cupping the waft advancing at supersonic speed.
Shubman Gill perished to an uncharacteristic heave while Nitish Rana scruffed a glove behind to his short ball bugbear. Karthik's premeditated paddle defeated the solitary purpose behind him stepping down from the job, as an ungainly ricochet trimmed the bails off. Andre Russell hammering a six and a four rekindled the glimmer of hope, though it was snuffed out pretty quickly by Jasprit Bumrah who exploited his pet peeve with a well-directed bumper, leaving KKR devoid of any sort of fizz at 61/5 around the halfway juncture.
Uber-cool Cummins saves KKR's neck
However, Pat Cummins and Eoin Morgan refused to throw in the towel, patching together a counterattack worth 87 to shepherd the men in maroon to presentable waters in terms of the scoreline. The all-rounder enjoyed the luxury of the time to get his eye in, trading singles to begin with before engaging in some calculated risk-reward ploys. Common wisdom would hint towards Morgan torch-bearing the surge, but it was Cummins instead, glazing a barbaric pull off Boult and notching his maiden IPL fifty with a slingshot to the cover fence off Coulter-Nile. Though Morgan leveraged profit in the right-arm's 20th, dumping two massive strikes to relic his bowling economy to a shambolic 4-0-51-1.
Rohit-de Kock stand wins half the battle
While the majority of KKR's swashbucklers came a cropper, the brash left-right combo of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock hummed a different tune. The futile adventures of hurling chin music were bonked promptly over the square leg fence besides an assortment of drives and punches whooshing through the carpet. Interspersed between the eloquent strokeplay was a goof-up from the southpaw, but Varun Chakravarthy shelled the immensely tough chance scampering backwards from short fine. The equation had stunted to a low-key 59 off the last ten when pacer Shivam Mavi allowed KKR a little foot in the door, nicking behind Sharma for almost a run-a-ball 35.
Hardik adds a dollop of splendour
Suryakumar Yadav gift-wrapped his wicket with a silver ribbon and extended it to KKR, picking the wrong ball to sweep and having his stumps tonged. Albeit Hardik Pandya held in store an exquisite garland, as fragnant as it possibly can be, comprising a couple of gun-barrel straight lofts and a bewitching whip off Pat Cummins, whose wicket-drought now stands elongated to five matches. The formalities were done and dusted with a rather anti-climatic nurdle along the turf, bristling MI to their 21st win over KKR in IPL history.
Where next from here?
Though Pat Cummins delivered the goods with his lesser-known skill tonight, its high time he does justice to the price tag with the ball in the first place. It wouldn't be a cakewalk though, for sure, as browbeaters David Warner and Jonny Bairstow from Sunrisers Hyderabad await KKR in the first of Sunday's doubleheader.
MI's juggernaut is operating on rocket fuel and deems potent enough to tyrannize bottom-dwellers Kings XI Punjab later in the evening.
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