IPL 2023: Mumbai Indians hand Kolkata Knight Riders crushing defeat by 5 wickets

Venkatesh Iyer, on Sunday, April 16 became only the second Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) batter after Brendon McCullum to score a hundred in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The southpaw hit six fours and nine sixes to rack up 104 runs off 51 balls. But his valiant efforts went in vain as the Mumbai Indians (MI) beat the Knights by five wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

After being put in to bat first, KKR scored 185 for the loss of six wickets. Barring Iyer, none of the Knights’ batters stepped up. Apart from Iyer, the Men in Gold and Purple scored 81 runs off 69 balls, out of which 14 runs (2 leg byes, 12 wides) were extras.

Andre Russell tried to give KKR’s innings a finishing kick after he scored 21 off 11 with three fours and one six. Piyush Chawla got the crucial wicket of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and finished with figures of 4-0-19-1.

Hrithik Shokeen also bowled well after he accounted for the scalps of Nitish Rana and Shardul Thakur. Left-arm fast bowler Duan Jansen, also the brother of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) fast bowler Marco Jansen, had an off day after he was taken for 53 runs at an economy rate of 13.25.

Riley Meredith and Cameron Green picked up one wicket apiece. Arjun Tendulkar made his IPL debut and finished with figures of 2-0-17-0. He bowled in



the powerplay, but didn’t return for a second spell.

The MI batters came out firing on all cylinders in their run-chase. Rohit Sharma, who came in as an Impact Player for Meredith, got out to Suyash Sharma after scoring 20 off 13. But MI racked up 72 runs in the powerplay to push the Knights on the back-foot.

Rohit and Ishan Kishan put on a partnership of 65 runs off 4.5 overs to put MI in the driver’s seat. Kishan, who looked a tad out of form, smashed a half-century off 21 balls. The southpaw hammered his way to 58 runs off 25 balls with five fours and as many sixes before Varun Chakravarthy rattled his woodwork.

Suryakumar Yadav was going through a horrendous run of form, scoring as many as four golden ducks over the last few weeks. But he returned to form after he notched 43 runs off 25 balls with three fours and three sixes.

Tilak Varma promised a whole lot in IPL 2023, scoring 30 runs off 25 balls, after which he became Suyash’s second victim. But by then, the required run rate was down to a run-a-ball. Tim David raced his way to 23 off 12 as MI chased down the target with as many as 14 balls to spare.

KKR, in the meantime, have plenty of work to do, especially in their bowling department, which has blown a tad hot and cold in the tournament.