CHENNAI (India): Nitish Rana’s valiant 57 and Andre Russell’s maiden T20 fifer went in vain as Kolkata Knight Riders lost the plot from a comfortable position to go down by 10 runs against Mumbai Indians in their second match of IPL 2021 on Tuesday.
KKR were in cruise control until the last five overs where they needed just 31 runs from 30 balls.
Russell, who received two lifelines, and Dinesh Karthik tried to push the team over the line but some terrific death bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult choked the Men in Purple & Gold.
Rahul Chahar also pitched in with a brilliant 4-27, which was instrumental in systematically breaking KKR down.
Set to chase 153 runs for a win, KKR looked to be on the hunt as long as Rana and Shubman Gill (33 off 24) were at the crease. The target looked well achievable until they got out. Other than the duo, no other KKR batsman could reach the double figures.
Mumbai Indians, earlier, started off strongly with a smashing half-century from Suryakumar Yadav (56 off 36) and a solid 43 (off 32 balls) from Rohit Sharma.
But once Yadav was dismissed by Shakib Al Hasan, the rest of the batters fell like a house of cards, leaving Rohit struggling at the other end.
Brief Scores: Mumbai 153 (Yadav 56, Rohit 43, Russell 5-15) beat KKR 142/7 (Rana 57, Gill 33, Chahar 4-27) by 10 runs
