Kolkata Knight Riders are playing against the Mumbai Indians in the 41st match of IPL 2018 at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.(May 9).
The two sides had faced each other on Sunday (May 6) at the Wankhede where MI piled up a mammoth 181/4 in 20 overs and won the contest by 13 runs. And tonight the defending champions even bettered it riding on Ishan Kishan’s blitz and Rohit Sharma’s measured knock.
Kolkata skipper Dinesh Karthik won the toss and invited MI to bat first. Evin Lewis (18 runs off 13 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (36 runs off 32 balls) led the foundation of 46 runs for the opening wicket before Piyush Chawla removed them in quick succession.
After dismissing the MI openers, KKR bowlers must have been heaving a sigh of relief but little did they know that the 19-year-old Ishan Kishan would tear them apart in the subsequent overs. Kishan along with his skipper Rohit added a mesmerizing 82-run stand in just 6 overs. During his herculean 21-ball 62 (5 fours and 6 sixes), Ishan hit Kuldeep Yadav for four sixes in a row.
Sunil Narine eventually got rid of Kishan in the 15th over which led to Hardik Pandya’s arrival at the crease. Rohit (36 runs off 31 balls) then took the charge and added a rather quick 33-run stand with Hardik before the duo perished within the span of three deliveries.
In the last over, Ben Cutting (24 runs off 9 balls) and Krunal Pandya (8 runs off 2 balls) demolished Chawla for 22 runs to propel MI to a mammoth 210/6 in 20 overs.
Twitterati were in awe to see the audacious knock of Ishan Kishan that put Mumbai Indians in a commanding position after the first half.
Here are some of the tweets hailing Mumbai’s stellar show with the bat:
ON ???????????? @ishankishan51 !!! 6 6 6!!!! @mipaltan @StarSportsIndia
— Erin Holland (@erinvholland) May 9, 2018
For all the time of their respective stays at the crease, Ishan looked very comfortable with the track while Rohit still hasn’t come to terms with the track. #MI #KKR #IPL2018
— RK (@RK_sports) May 9, 2018
Narine gets Ishan Kishan, but not before the young man had gone berserk, hitting sixes at will and put Mumbai on road to 200. Where does he get the power from to strike it 85-90 yards consistently?
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 9, 2018
Pretty sure an India ‘A’ T20 team with the likes of Kishan, Samson, Pant, Iyer, Krunal, Gowtham, Rana, Rajpoot, Sandeep, Thampi etc. will give the senior team named yesterday a heck of a game
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) May 9, 2018
Game changing inn #Ishankishan power hitter this lil man ???? @mipaltan vs @KKRiders
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 9, 2018
He's disappointed is Ishan Kishan but he's changed the direction of this innings for #MI
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 9, 2018