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In a rain-curtailed outing, spinners helped Kolkata Knight Riders make a fantastic comeback and help derail Mumbai Indians' run chase of 158 runs, restricting them to 139/8 in 16 overs at the Eden Gardens on Saturday, May 11, 2024, and made the two-time champions the first team to reach the play-offs.
In a 16-over contest, MI won the toss and invited KKR to bat, who posted 157 on the board. MI fell short by 18 runs eventually.
The bowlers who made noteworthy contributions on the night...
Piyush Chawla
Veteran spinner Piyush Chawla made a bright start with the ball for Mumbai Indians. He struck with his first ball of the match, getting rid of Venkatesh Iyer, who had smashed 42 from 21 balls, to get KKR back on track after a difficult start.
Venkatesh looked to target Chawla straightaway when he came into the attack to bowl the ninth over but ended up paying the price as he holed out to the fielder at long off.
Although he went for a few runs, Chawla struck another crucial bowl in his third over. Andre Russell warmed up nicely for the death overs, hitting 24 from 14 balls. But Chawla outfoxed him with the seam-up bouncer (117 kph), which Russell top edged as he was clearly done in by the extra pace. The ball sailed high on the leg side with Anshul Kamboj holding onto a good catch at deep square leg.
Chawla's spell of 2/28 in three overs proved to be instrumental in helping MI restrict KKR to 157/7 in their 16 overs in the rain-hit match.
Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah made a smashing start with the ball. Handed the new ball, Bumrah struck with his very first delivery as he got rid of KKR's in-form opener Sunil Narine, who misjudged the line of the full delivery as he offered no shot only to see the ball crash into the stumps.
That was a body blow for KKR as both their openers -- Narine and Phil Salt -- were back in the dugout in the first seven balls of the innings.
Bumrah suffered some rough treatment at the hands of Venkatesh Iyer in his next over as the KKR left-hander hit a couple of fours and a six.
The MI pacer missed out on a wicket in his third over. Nitish Rana, who was given out leg before, managed to overturn the decision as the ball had pitched outside the line of leg stump.
He finished off things nicely for MI. He dismissed Rinku Singh with the first delivery of the final over, getting him caught behind for 20.
Bumrah struggled to contain the runs but bagged important wickets to finish with 2/39 in his four overs.
The wicket of Rinku was Bumrah's 20th in IPL 2024, from 13 games, at an economy rate of 6.48.
Varun Chakravarthy
The leggie from Tamil Nadu has been a revelation in the second half of the season.
He struggled to get going at the start of the season and had eight wickets from seven games at an average of 29.5.
On April 29, Chakravarthy said at the post match presentation that he had a talk with KKR Co-Owner Shah Rukh Khan, words that motivated him.
Since then, in four games he has picked 10 wickets at an average of 8.5, and economy rate of 5.80, and a strike rate of 8.8.
VC rolled with his form against MI on a sticky wicket that had a bit of help for spinners. He hit the hard lengths and started off nicely, giving just three runs in his opening over.
In his very next over, Chakravarthy got rid of a struggling Rohit Sharma -- he made the India skipper across the line and a catch by Narine at short fine leg got him out for 19 in 24 balls. At that stage MI were 67/2 in 7.5 overs.
He gave next to nothing away in the middle overs, choking the runs and putting pressure on MI.
In the 12th over, he took out MI Captain Hardik Pandya, who got a leading edge on the slog and was caught for 2. Chakravarthy finished with 2 for 17 in four overs. His spell extinguished the MI's innings.
Sunil Narine
After failing with the bat, Narine spinner came good with the ball. He once again proved what a quality all-rounder he is.
He was clobbered by Ishan Kishan in his first over for 13 runs. However he came back well to exact revenge.
Narine broke the opening partnership, as Kishan went for the slog sweep and holed out to mid wicket.
With this, Narine became the third cricketer to pick 550 or more wickets in men's T20 cricket.
He stands behind Rashid Khan who has 574 wickets to his name, while fellow Trinidadian and CSK great Dwayne Bravo, holds the top spot with 625 wickets.
He kept a leash on the scoring and put the pressure back on MI who kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually fell short by 18 runs. He finished with 1 for 21 off his 3 overs but getting that Kishan wicket definitely helped KKR turn the tables on MI.
In IPL 2024 thus far, after 12 matches, the 35 year old has bagged 15 wickets at an economy rate of 6.73
Andre Russell
The big Jamaican all-rounder was brought into the attack when MI needed 77 from 6 overs.
With Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma at the crease, that target seemed very much gettable. In came Russell to bowl and all that seemingly changed.
In his very first over, he had SKY foxed. Bowling a slower, short, wide ball, he forced the big hitter to drag the ball from way outside the off stump and pull, but SKY couldn't control the shot and played it straight to the fielder at deep mid wicket.
He struck with the first ball of his next over, taking out Tim David for just 2. Russell was tonked around by Varma and later by Naman Dhir -- he finished with 2 for 34 off 3 overs -- but he took out the two batters who could have handed MI victory.
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