Mumbai Indians staged a brilliant comeback against Kolkata Knight Riders to get their first points of the Indian Premier League 2021 season.
Suryakumar Yadav’s half-century and a patient innings of 43 runs from skipper Rohit Sharma helped Mumbai put 152 runs on the scoreboard on a tricky pitch at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai. Andre Russell was the star of the bowling attack as he took 5 wickets in just two overs as Mumbai’s middle-order failed to provide a big finish for a second consecutive match.
Kolkata Knight Riders started the run-chase superbly as Shubhman Gill scored 33 runs off 24 balls and Nitish Rana played a superb knock of 57 runs in just 47 balls. Rahul Chahar’s four wickets and an economical spell from Krunal Pandya helped MI derail KKR’s innings and gift Rohit Sharma’s side two crucial points. After 15 overs, the Knight Riders looked safe home as they needed just 31 runs off 30 balls with 7 wickets in hand and reliable finishers in Dinesh Karthik and Russell waiting for their chance to bat. But MI’s superb death bowling saw Kolkata lose the match by 10 runs.
In the post-match interview, Rohit Sharma praised his team’s comeback and quipped that you don’t see games like these often.
He said,
“(It) Was a great fightback, excellent fightback by each one of them. You don’t see a game like this often. Lots of confidence from this game and we move forward. KKR batted brilliantly in the powerplay. Rahul came and got us crucial wickets in the middle;. Krunal bowling those overs at the end was vital as well. It was a complete team effort and credit to all the bowlers.”
The Indian national team vice-captain feels that the pitch in Chennai doesn’t allow batsmen to come and hit the big shots straightaway. Sharma also praised Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant innings while talking about adapting to the pitch at the Chepauk Stadium.
The 33-year old continued
“As batters you need to carry on. The trend in Chennai is you can’t hit from ball one. You have to plan before you go into bat. We were 15-20 runs short. Should have batted well at the fag end. We need to understand how we need to bat at the death but I don’t want to take anything away from the boys. SKY has carried his form well. He plays fearless and it’s a positive sign for us in the first few overs. We need a guy there to do that. We have done the finishing part well as a team, just that we need to understand the surfaces here and adapt.”