Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium in the ongoing IPL 2024. This was their first win over MI in Mumbai after 12 long years.
Hardik Pandya, the MI captain won the toss and chose to bowl first. KKR tried to go with their aggressive batting plan, but it backfired for them. They were reduced to 57/5 in no time, with big guns like Phil Salt, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, and Sunil Narine all falling for single-digit scores.
Venkatesh Iyer (70) and Manish Pandey (42) added 83 runs for the sixth wicket and helped KKR post 169 in 19.5 overs. Jasprit Bumrah and Nuwan Thushara picked three wickets each.
MI was expected to overhaul the total with ease, but KKR spinners knitted a crushing web around their batters. Rohit Sharma (11), Naman Dhir (11), Tilak Varma (4), and Nehal Wadhera (6) all fell to spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy.
There was still hope for MI when Suryakumar Yadav was fighting back and scored a brilliant 56 in 35 balls. But then Andre Russell and Mitchell Starc hit back and despite Tim David’s 24, MI could only muster 145 runs in 18.5 overs.
Mitchell Starc was the pick of bowlers with 4/33m including 3 wickets in the 19th over. Varun, Sunil Narine, and Andre Russell picked two scalps each. KKR defeated MI by 24 runs.
After the match, Player of the Match Venkatesh Iyer and Starc were seen in conversation for IPL and Iyer hilariously asked him where he had been hiding his lady luck all this while. Starc’s wife, Australia women’s captain Alyssa Healy was seen at the Wankhede Stadium in a KKR jersey, cheering for her husband.
“Mitch very well bowled but I have to ask you where were you hiding Alyssa Healy till now,” asked Iyer in the post-match chat posted by IPL.
“She’s been at home because she’s been on the road for a while so now she’s here but she stayed till the end so hopefully that’s a good sign,” Starc replied.
Starc also spoke about his plans in the finishing over where he got the prized scalp of Tim David.
“I was watching a little bit of video and talking to a few people and trying to change a few things. I haven’t felt like it’s been going wrong. Nice to get a few in the right areas tonight with a bit of rhythm and close out the game which is nice. In the last over, obviously, Timmy (Tim David) got hold of that first ball and then just tried to stay a step ahead trying to get those wide yorkers in there, and missed on the fuller side. I think it's equal, the spinners in the middle is a fantastic spell of overs there. They just really strangled the innings in the middle and really made it a lot easier for us at the back end,” he added.
KKR had bought Starc for INR 24.75 Cr in the IPL 2024 auction and the pacer has 11 wickets in 9 games. He has an average of 33 and an economy of 11.40 with best figures of 4/33.
