Picture Credit : BCCI
KKR Skipper Dinesh Karthik in the last two matches won the toss and sked Mumbai to bat . And on both occasions the team failed to chase down the target. After losing the previous encounter at Wankhede by 13 runs, one expected KKR to learn some lessons but they did not.
They repeated the mistake again, asked Mumbai to bat first and collapsed dismally while chasing . Sent into bat at the Eden Gardens, MI scored an imposing 210 for six, riding on 19-year-old Ishan Kishan’s 21-ball 62, studded with five fours and six sixes, and then backed by fine bowling and sharp fielding bowled KKR out for a paltry 108 in 18.1 overs.
Youngster Kishan hit 50 off mere 17 ball. That included four consecutive sixes of Kuldeep Yadav. It was knock that demoralised KKR and rattled them .
Towards the end Ben Cutting smashed 24 off 9 balls. The last over by Piyush Chawla, once does not know what prompted Karthik to give the last over to Chawla. It was final nail in the coffin for KKR. It went for a whopping 22 runs.
That they made a heavy weather of the stiff target was understandable. They could not handle the pressure at all and the batting folded to 108 all out. Leaving the huge crowd at Eden Gardens stunned and shocked. It was the bigeest margin of defeat in IPL 2018
The Pandya brothers starred with the ball, with both Hardik and Krunal picking up two wickets each.
With their third successive victory, MI jumped to fourth spot with 10 points from 11 matches. KKR also have the same 10 points from 11 matches but they are a place down at fifth on the net run rate.
These twin losses have hurt KKR’s chances of making it to the play- offs.
