Hello and a warm welcome to yet another blog on the daily match reviews on this year’s IPL. Today I will be covering the match played between the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wamkhede, a rare game which was not high-scoring and both teams were bowled out. So let’s get started!
Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to field first not on a high-scoring track. His decision was right as the KKR openers and middle-order did go aggressive but lost their wickets as MI were on top, forcing KKR to use another batter as the impact sub in the form of Manish Pandey. He and Venky Iyer played a solid partnership before Pandey fell, but Venkatesh kept going on and fought till the end as KKR posted a respectable total of 169. MI had a similar start to that of their counterparts but their run rate was slower and they lost 6 wickets for just 71 runs. SKY tried his best to win the game along with David but he fell on a full-toss and David couldn’t strike the ball properly, as the bowlers gave KKR a huge win by 24 runs, practically eliminating MI from the competition.
In another failure in the chase for MI, they were absolutely spot at the start of the game, with Thushara picking up 4 wickets and Bumrah, again picking 3 wickets but let the game slip with their batting, as I feel they should have handled the mighty KKR spinners properly as they changed the game after the powerplay, picking up wickets in quick succession. But another thing I was baffled about in MI’s playing 11 was there were only 3 foreigners involved in the game and I feel they should have played Brevis or Shepheard instead of Naman Dhir this game as these two are wonderful players and have experience in these stages of a tournament where you need to win every game. SKY and Bumrah are the only things MI can cheer about but Hardik has still not even hit 3rd gear this tournament and got out for hitting just a run, a problem which is not been solved so far. For KKR, they would be happy that finally Venkatesh had a good game and Pandey played a vital role in the batting. But their spinners won the day as they were once again outstanding and backed up by the pacers led by Starc, giving KKR a win at the Wankhede after 12 years. MI have some crazy scenarios for qualifying, which is practically impossible. If you want, the link is below…
Mumbai Indians’ chances hanging by a thread | Cricbuzz.com
So that’s it for this blog. The next game is between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Gujarat Titans at the Chinnaswamy. So stay tuned for that!