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MUMBAI: With the Wankhede Stadium pitch holding up a bit, Kolkata Knight Riders were banking on spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy to tame the Mumbai Indians‘ batters on their home turf.
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The combo didn’t disappoint as they finished with combined figures of 8-0-44-4- both taking identical 4-0-22-2- to break the back of the MI chase and almost end their playoff hopes.KKR, with their 24-run win, moved to 14 points and a step closer to a knockout spot. MI’s eighth defeat of the season leaves them second last on the table with six points. It was KKR’s second win against MI at the venue in 11 games and the first since 2012.
Defending a low total of 169 was never easy at the Wankhede which has small boundaries, but KKR bowlers stuck to their plans and crafted MI’s downfall. It started with Mitchell Starc (4/33) cleaning up Ishan Kishan after he was hit for 10 runs off two balls. The spinners took over thereafter and made sure that MI’s middle-order was kept in check.
Not only did they bowl economically but kept taking wickets as well to put the home side under pressure.
Narine accounted for Rohit Sharma (11, 12b; 1×6), who came in as an impact sub, and Nehal Wadhera (6, 11b; 1×4) while Chakravarty dismissed Naman Dhir (11, 11b; 2×4) and Tilak Varma (4, 6b). Skipper Hardik Pandya‘s dismal run with the bat continued as he played a loose shot off Andre Russell (2/30) which left MI reeling at 71-6.
Suryakumar Yadav gave MI a glimmer of hope with his 35-ball 56. He started sedately with wickets falling around him but once the spinners had finished their quota, he opened his shoulders and took on the KKR pacers. He took 20 runs off Vaibhav Arora in the 14th over to bring down the equation to 60 runs from 36 balls.
But when it looked like he would take the match away from KKR, he skied a full toss from Russell, which was well caught by keeper Phil Salt, and with it MI’s hopes ended.
Starc rounded off the proceedings with three wickets in the 19th over to seal emphatic win. He had Tim David caught at long-off after being hit for a six, Piyush Chawla’s chip could only find Narine at extra cover and the left-arm pacer put the icing on the cake by cleaning up Gerald Coetzee.
Earlier, things looked grim for KKR when they could post just 169 on the board. The only solace for them was a 62-ball 83 partnership between Venkatesh Iyer (70, 52b; 6×4, 3×6) and impact substitute Manish Pandey (42, 31b; 2×4, 2×6) in a below-par batting effort.
Either side of that association, there was carnage. MI reduced KKR to 57 for five by 6.1 overs and when it looked like the Iyer-Pandey combo was ready to launch, quick blows- four wickets to be precise-between overs 17 and 18 made sure that KKR couldn’t end their innings with a flourish.
First to depart was Pandey, playing his first match of the season, off the bowling of Hardik Pandya (2/44). In the same over the dangerous Andre Russell (7, 2b; 1×6) was run out after a mix-up with Iyer.
