Kolkata Knight Riders recorded an impressive 18-run win over Mumbai Indians in the 60th match of the IPL 2024 at Eden Gardens on Sunday, May 12, 2024. With a win, Shreyas Iyer’s Kolkata became the first team to secure a playoff qualification this season.
Early rain delayed the kick-off by almost two hours and play was reduced to a 16-over match. Venkatesh Iyer continued his impressive form against Mumbai by scoring 42 runs off just 21 balls to help Kolkata post a 157 total and then Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell shone with a ball to restrict Mumbai to 139.
After being forced to bat first, Kolkata struggled for a positive start with in-form openers Sunil Narine and Phil Salt walking back to the pavilion in the first over overs. Skipper Shreyas Iyer was also dismissed on seven runs by Anshul Kamboj in the fifth over.
Venkatesh and the returning batter Nitish Rana kept the scoreboard moving with aggressive batting in the middle overs with the latter scoring crucial 33 runs. Andre Russell smashed quick 24 runs but was not able to finish once again.
Kolkata managed to find crucial runs through Ramandeep Singh who scored 17* off just 8 balls and finished the innings with a huge six off Jasprit Bumrah. Piyush Chawla and Bumrah picked two wickets each but Hardik and Nuwan Thusahra struggled with expensive spells for Mumbai.
Chasing 158 in 16 overs, Mumbai enjoyed a flying start with Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma adding 65 runs inside seven overs for the opening wicket. Rohit struggled for big shots but Ishan gave Mumbai an early control in a tough chase by smashing 40 runs off just 22 balls.
In-form spinner Varun Chakravarthy gave Kolkata a breakthrough with Rohit’s big wicket and Sunil Narine dismissed dangerous-looking Ishan Kishan in the following over to stun Mumbai. The travelling side then failed to make a comeback and lost timely wickets under the pressure of increasing the required run rate.
Naman Dhir smashed two sixes and a four off Russell in the penultimate over when Mumbai needed 41 runs to win the game but Harshit Rana easily defended 22 runs in the last over with couple of wickets to restrict the five-time champions to a 139/8 total in 16 overs.
Mumbai Indians Playing XI: Ishan Kishan (wk), Naman Dhir, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera, Hardik Pandya (c), Tim David, Anshul Kamboj, Piyush Chawla, Jasprit Bumrah, Nuwan Thushara (substituted by Rohit Sharma).
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI: Philip Salt (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rinku Singh, Nitish Rana (substituted by Vaibhav Arora), Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
