Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) managed to steal a loss from the jaws of defeat in the 5th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021  as they lost the game by 10 runs. KKR had seven wickets in the hand when they were requiring 40 runs off the last six overs, but some false strokes by Nitish Rana and Shakib Al Hasan in the overs of Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya led to KKR’s downfall. MI managed to continue their dominance against the Knight Riders to notch up their maiden win of the tournament.

Chasing 153 to win, Rana and Shubman Gill gave KKR a steady start as they keep on milking runs which helped the team to finish the powerplay at 0/46. However, Rahul Chahar drew the first blood for MI as he had the last laugh against Gill after being smashed for a six. Nitish Rana, however, continued to play his natural game but Rahul Tripathi failed to get going as Chahar foxed him with some vicious spin which left KKR at 2/84 in 10.3. Nitish Rana reached yet another half-century in just 40 balls.

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However,  Chahar kept on taking wickets as he dismissed KKR skipper Eoin Morgan, who failed to get the pitch of the ball and holed out at deep midwicket. The leggie got another crucial wicket of Nitish Rana [57 off 47 balls], who ran down the pitch, only to get deceived by a slider. In the next over, Krunal got the better of Shakib Al Hasan as Surykumar Yadav took an easy catch and he gave away just one run in the over. Then, Jasprit Bumrah gave just 1 run off the first four deliveries of the 19th over and KKR need 15 runs in the final over.

Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell were at the crease, but Trent Boult got the wicket of the latter courtesy of a brilliant yorker. Boult backed it up by knocking over Pat Cummins to seal the deal for the Mumbai Indians. Earlier in the game, Varun Chakravarthy knocked over the dangerous Quinton de Kock for a 6-ball 2 as Suryakumar Yadav joined hands with Rohit Sharma.

SKY, as usual, was at his ferocious bets as he smashed Pat Cummins for a six with just a flick of his wrist. Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, played second fiddle to Suryakumar Yadav, who brought up his 33-ball 50 with yet another stylish stroke, which was the six against Pat Cummins.

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The highlight reel finally ended when SKY (56 off 36 balls) as he mistimed lofted stroke off Shakib Al Hasan to give an easy catch to Shubmab Gill at long-on. His wickets opened the flood gates for MI as lost their last eight wickets for 66 in 9.3 overs. While Pat Cummins (2/24 in 4 overs) claimed the likes of Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma in quick succession, Andre Russell, in an inspiring spell of two overs, managed to dismiss the remaining five wickets- 5/15 in 2 overs- to bowl Mumbai Indians out for 152.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai Indians – 152 all-out in 20 overs (SKY: 56; A Russell: 5/15, P Cummins: 2/24) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders – 142/7 in 20 overs (N Rana: 57; R Chahar: 4/27, K Pandya: 1/15) by 10 runs

Here is how Twitter reacted to MI’s win:

What champion sides are made of showed by @mipaltan again.brilliant come back in the game. Top win

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 13, 2021

Well they haven’t won 5 titles if they don’t believe they can win from anywhere. Chahar – take a bow, Bumrah outstanding and Boult adding the finishing touches. #MI are away in this edition of #IPL2021

— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) April 13, 2021

Brilliant at the end from #MI. But #KKR those last few overs???

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 13, 2021

And how did KKR manage to lose from almost run-a-ball in the last five overs? Some ordinary shots started slide, and then brilliant death bowling took over #KKRvsMI

— Sambit Bal (@sambitbal) April 13, 2021

Why would KKR batsmen keep trying to hit Chahar and now Pandya out of the ground when the need was surely to see the spinners off on this pitch. MI back in the game

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 13, 2021

What a spell.

Rahul Chahar has put as much rip on the ball as he has in his hair.#MIvsKKR

— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) April 13, 2021

Mumbai Indians looking helpless in the first half of IPL means, teams would starve for wins in second half. #IPL

— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) April 13, 2021

Of the 55 batsmen to have opened the innings 15+ times in IPL cricket, no player has a lower false shot percentage than Shubman Gill:

1. S Gill – 8.7%
2. KL Rahul – 15.1%
3. V Kohli – 15.2%
4. R Sharma – 15.3%
5. S Samson – 16.0%#IPL2021 #KKRvMI

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) April 13, 2021

Mumbai Indians' IPL match #1 to #203 – no five-wicket hauls against them.
In their #IPL #204 & #205 – two five-wicket hauls against #MI#MIvsKKR #KKRvsMI #IPL2021

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) April 13, 2021

Stellar comeback from #KKRHaiTaiyaar 38/7 in the last five overs. Five wickets for Russell. It looks like that the innings from Surya came in a different match…In a different year. #KKRvMI #IPL2021

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 13, 2021

Mumbai Indians have been a strange team these two games. Very strange #KKRvMI #IPL2021

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) April 13, 2021