Srinagar: It was special night for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday, as they not only cemented their position in the top two with their seventh win of the season from 10 outings, but also it was their first win over Mumbai Indians at Wankhadhe Stadium, Mumbai in 12 years. In the match, KKR beat Mumbai Indians by 24 runs.
With this defeat, MI remain in the bottom half of the points table and are all but out of playoff contention.
Kolkata Knight Riders spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy stifled the Mumbai Indians batters in the first 10 overs as the hosts chased a target of 170.
MI were reduced to 61/4 in the ninth over with Narine dismissing Rohit Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy getting Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma.
Mitchell Starc went on to finish the match in spectacular fashion, claiming three wickets in the penultimate over and thus helping KKR win by 24 runs. The Australian pacer finished with figures of 4/33.
Earlier, KKR’s top order was dismantled by MI within the first seven overs of their innings. Nuwan Thushara dismissed Phil Salt in the first over of the match and then removed Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Shreyas Iyer in the third.
Hardik Pandya then dismissed Sunil Narine, after which Piyush Chawla sent Rinku Singh back with his first ball of the match in the seventh over.
Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey then forged a partnership of 83 runs off 62 balls, somewhat resurrecting the innings. Jasprit Bumrah was held back until the final five overs.
He managed to halt KKR’s progress when they appeared capable of reaching 190, taking three wickets in the death overs. KKR were thus all out for a score of 169.