Kolkata Knight Riders Fail To Defend A Competitive Score Against Mumbai Indians..!

Kolkata Knight Riders who are known to be a team with consistency and adequately ‘in form’ playing 11 squad, yet again failed to defend a challenging score against Mumbai Indians on Thursday at Wankhede International Stadium, Mumbai.

KKR freezed on its place at Number 2 position in the points table while Mumbai bounced up to the number 3 position in the points table..!!

Earlier during the match, Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians opted to field after winning a crucial toss.

Robin Uthappa, who has been in fine form for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), he continued with his momentum once again. Uthappa gave KKR much-needed early traction by hitting 36 off a mere 20 balls with 1 four and 2 sixes. He and Gautam Gambhir put up a dazzling 69-run stand before Uthappa hit a full toss from Harbhajan Singh to Kieron Pollard. It was an all-too-brief innings from Uthappa, but it was enough to give KKR some early momentum going for them. Sadly, with Shakib Al Hasan failing to make an impression at No. 3, KKR’s good start got blunted. Gambhir’s outstanding form in IPL 2016 has been eclipsed only by that of Virat Kohli. The left-handed opener continued his rich vein of form, hitting 59 off only 45 balls with 6 fours and 1 six. It was his 30th IPL 50, by far the most by any batsman. He also became the first batsman to go past 50 on 30 occasions in IPL, going past David Warner (29 50-plus scores) in the process. His dismissal cost KKR a few runs at the end. KKR reached a competitive total of 174 for 5.

Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan, and Jasprit Bumrah bowled well at the death to ensure that KKR did not score too many runs.The current holder of the Purple Cap ought to have finished with 4 wickets on the day, but instead ended with just 1. He had himself to blame for the first let-off, but his New Zealand teammate Tim Southee for the other two. Gambhir, batting on 8 at the time, skied an attempted pull but McClenaghan dropped the ball, quite literally. Later in the 19th over of the innings Lynn and Pathan were dropped off successive balls, both by Southee at deep midwicket. McClenaghan finished with figures of 1 for 33 in 4 overs, which on another day could have been something like 4 for 22.

Something about KKR brings out the best in Rohit Sharma. The MI skipper tends to do well against them on most occasions. He had led MI to a victory over KKR in what was the Gambhir-led team’s only defeat of the season earlier in the tournament. He did the same again, scoring an unbeaten 68 off 49 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. Despite winning Man of the Match for the knock, his contribution paled in comparison to what followed…With MI 106 for 4 in 13 overs, it was still anyone’s game. Rohit was batting fluently at one end, but another wicket could have made things dicey for MI. Enter Kieron Pollard, playing his 100th IPL match. Pollard started with a couple of boundaries against Shakib Al Hasan. Rajagopal Sathish came on to bowl the 16th over of the innings, and Pollard swung him away for 3 massive sixes. With 19 runs needed to win off the last 3 overs, Jaydev Unadkat came on to bowl. Pollard hit 3 more sixes to win the match, remaining unconquered on 51 off 17 balls with 2 fours and 6 sixes.

Watch The Highlights Here. 

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