Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) faced Mumbai Indians (MI) in their opening game of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 at Abu Dhabi on Wednesday (September 23).

Asked to bat first, the defending champions piled up 195/5 in their stipulated 20 overs on the back of skipper Rohit Sharma’s 54-ball 80. Suryakumar Yadav also played a valuable knock of 28-ball 47 while Saurabh Tiwary chipped in with a cameo of 13-ball 21.

For KKR, Sunil Narine (1/22) and Shivam Mavi (2/32) were the only bowlers who managed to return with respectable figures amid the carnage.

In reply, Knight Riders got off to a terrible start, losing their openers, Shubman Gill (7) and Sunil Narine (9), cheaply. Although captain Dinesh Karthik (30) and Nitish Rana (24) steadied the ship with a 46-run stand for the third wicket, KKR failed to take the momentum forward and coped a middle-order collapse.

The likes of Eoin Morgan (16) and Andre Russell (11) and Nikhil Naik (1) couldn’t live up to the expectations as Kolkata slipped from 71/3 to 103/7.

Jasprit Bumrah (2/32), James Pattinson (2/24), Trent Boult (2/30) and Rahul Chahar (2/26) bowled brilliantly and claimed two wickets each as MI eventually restricted KKR to 146/9.

Cricket experts were highly impressed by Mumbai Indians’ ruthless performance throughout the game.

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