Mumbai Indians (MI) registered their first win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 by defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by a huge margin of 49 runs on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. MI skipper, Rohit Sharma was the star performer as he scored 80 off 54 deliveries as he got support from Surya Kumar Yadav (47 off 28 balls) as Mumbai reached a total of 195/5 in their quota of 20 overs.
Chasing 196, the KKR failed to get the much-needed start as by the fifth over they had the score reading only 25 after the dismissal of Shubman Gill and Sunil Narine. Surprisingly, Dinesh Karthik promoted himself to number three while Nitish Rana walked in at the fall of the second wicket. But both the batsmen couldn’t up the ante and match the required run-rate. Karthik played some delightful strokes but KKR was always behind.
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Karthik and Rana were dismissed in quick succession and then Russell came out to bat when KKR was requiring 119 runs from 46 deliveries. To make things worse, Eoin Morgan was finding it difficult to middle the ball. The only hope was from this duo for KKR but Rohit had kept three overs of his ace bowler Bumrah with seven overs to go and the latter proved what a champion bowler he is by sending back Eoin Morgan in the 16th over itself.
To everyone’s surprise, though Pat Cummins had some fun in the middle and reduced the winning margin for MI. He hit four sixes off Bumrah in a single to disturb his exceptional figures. Eventually, KKR only reached 146 runs for the loss of nine wickets to lose the game by 49 runs.
Earlier, MI lost Quinton de Kock in the second over itself then, Rohit Sharma unleashed himself when Cummins was brought into the attack in the fifth over. The Australian bowler bowled a couple of short of length delivery only to trigger the MI skipper as he smacked maximums showing his prowess. Along with Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit targetted Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav in their respective first overs.
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Come the 14th over of the innings though Rohit Sharma decided to go bang-bang and smashed Kuldeep for a couple of sixes in the over. However, when he was looking to open up, even more, Shivam Mavi got the big fish. MI didn’t get the final flourish as expected but they managed to reach 195 runs for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs which seemed par at the halfway mark.
Hits
Rohit Sharma
MI skipper, Rohit Sharma was the star performer as he scored 80 off 54 deliveries. unleashed himself when Cummins was brought into the attack in the fifth over. The Australian bowler bowled a couple of short of length delivery only to trigger the MI skipper as he smacked maximums showing his prowess.
Surya Kumar Yadav
Along with Suryakumar Yadav, who scored 47 off 28 balls, Rohit targetted Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav in their respective first overs. Yadav steadied teh ship of MI along with Rohit after the early dismissal of Quinton de Kock
Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah gave away just 4 runs in his first three over and scalped a couple of wickets as well including Andre Russell. However, he was smashed for 28 by Pat Cummins in the penultimate over.
Flops
Pat Cummins
Expectations were sky high from the KKR fast bowler, Pat Cummins when he landed in UAE for the ongoing IPL 2020 as he was the costliest overseas player in the history of the tournament. But it is safe to say that the start of the Australia pacer is nothing less than a disaster. He gave away as many as 49 runs in just three overs against Mumbai Indians.
Andre Russell
After having a decent outing in CPL 2020, Andre Russel was expecetd to dow well for KKR in their opening game in IPL 2020. When he came out to bat KKR needed 119 runs from 46 deliveries, but he scored 11 off 11 balls. Howver, he bowled an ecomincal bowling spell.
