Mumbai cruised to a brilliant start as Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis started the attack early. Kolkata bowlers could not get an early breakthrough and the batsmen maintained the dominant position throughout. The runs were flowing with around 10 per over. KKR got their first breakthrough in the 10th over as Russell took the wicket of Lewis on a slower delivery. Mumbai Indians were 95/1 after 10 overs. Suryakumar Yadav made his fifty, Rohit Sharma failed again as he was caught after scoring 11 runs. Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav were taking the innings ahead. Russell removed Suryakumar Yadav in the 15th over. The run rate slid off a bit but Mumbai had enough overs left to bring it back on track. The remaining batsmen added runs for the team and took the total to 181 after 20 overs.
Chasing a target of 182 runs, KKR started hitting early, Chris Lynn was hitting the ball everywhere for boundaries but McClenaghan dismissed him in the third over, Shubhman Gill soon departed and Mumbai bowler did some serious damage. KKR were looking to make a comeback. Chasing the target of 182, both the openers Shubman Gill and Chris Lynn got out. KKR were 47/2 after the end of the powerplay. At he end of 10 overs KKR were 91/2, needed the same runs in the next ten overs. Uthappa took the team to the lead and made 50 on the grounds. In the 13th over game changed when marakndey magically got the wicket of Robin Uthappa. In he next over hardik sent back Nitish to pavilion. Pressure was back on KKR. Russell and DK was on thw crease.
In the 17th over Bumrah got the ball and runrate just declined and reqired runrate hiked and on thw fourth ball on a short ball Russell lost his wicket in the hands of Krunal.
KKR still needed 43 of 18 balls.
In the last over needed 23 runs, Krunal gave only gave 10 and took wicket of Narine.
It was a victory for MI and crowd went mad there. It was a big win for MI and kept them alive in VivoIPL 2018.
– Ankit Vaishnav
