In the 5th match of IPL 2016, Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders and that too in their own backyard. The 24th match of the IPL 2016 saw these two sides again taking on each other, this time the venue being Mumbai Indians home ground, Wankhede.
| Mumbai Indians | vs | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Date | 28 Apr 2016 | |
| Venue | Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai | |
| 174/5 (20) | 178/4 (18) | |
Indians won by 6 wickets |
||
Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl first.
They remained unchanged. While the KKR made 2 changes getting IN Chris Lynn in place of Morne Morkel and Jaidev Unadkat in place of Piyush Chawla – thus playing an extra batsman.
Something that has done wonders for KKR this season and is primarily the reason for them being table-toppers is their continuous good starts generated by their opening pair in Uthappa and Gambhir and in this match too.
The duo fired which resulted in KKR going at a run rate of just under 10.00 to the over in the powerplay overs – being 59/0 after 6 overs.
In the 7th over, Uthappa fell to Harbhajan for 36 – a full toss which Uthappa played straight to long-on field.
KKR lost their first blood. Shakib Al Hasan was promoted up the order to bat at 1st down (first time in his career) and the move failed as Shakib went for a mere 6 runs.
Gambhir who prior to this match was 5th in the orange cap list (highest run getters of season) played a solid innings and fulfilled in his role of anchoring the innings till it reached a commanding position – it was his 59 that established base for the pinch hitters in Yusuf Pathan, Chris Lynn and Rusell to make the full use of. Gambhir is now 2nd in the orange cap list.
It was the quick-fire 19 of 8 balls that guided KKR to 187
It could’ve been more had Chris Lynn showed his typical big hitting abilities, having faced 10 deliveries he could only manage 10 runs at a strike rate of 100 while in the latter overs a strike rate of 200 is ideally the pace at which a batsmen should score. On a slowish and spinning Wankhede track, this looked like a very competitive total.
The Mumbai Indians began their chase losing an early wicket in Parthiv Patel
who couldn’t show the same finesse in batting as he did against KXIP – scoring an 80+. The Mumbai Indians though did see a partnership form between Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu- sharing a 59 run partnership in which Rayudu made 32 off 20 before becoming a prey of Shakib Al Hasan.
2 wickets fell soon enough in KH Pandya and Josh Buttler’s dismissals
Falling for 6 and 15 respectively which hit Mumbai Indian’s chase and while Rohit Sharma was going stroke at one end and looked absolutely comfortable in spite of wickets falling at the other end, he needed an aggressor to keep the required run rate in check. This was made possible through Pollard’s fiery, explosive and absolutely jaw-smacking 51 in 21 balls (hitting 6 sixes), 3 in the 18th over itself to complete the run chase.
It was this destructive batting from Pollard which took Mumbai Indians to a commanding victory in 18 overs – quite similar to how they beat KKR in 5th match of the tournament, a fairly commanding win.
Rohit Sharma became MOTM – for his anchoring 68 in 49 deliveries which gave the chase a sense of momentum on which Pollard capitalized.
Mumbai Indians are now 3rd in the points table but have played 8 matches, whereas KKR are 2nd having played only 6.
This match also marks the end of IPL 2016 in drought hit Mumbai.
[button color=”” size=”large” type=”” target=”” link=”https://sports.beebulletin.com/tag/ipl-2016-match-highlights/”%5DTap Here for all IPL 2016 Match Highlights[/button]
