Kolkata Knight Riders registered a scintillating 52-run win over Mumbai Indians to keep their playoff hopes alive. It was a disciplined bowling performance from KKR which was too good for Mumbai Indians batters who had a job to chase a below-par 166-run target. KKR, who made five changes to their side for the crucial clash, got back to the winning ways at the crucial stage of the tournament and now they have to win their remaining matches to stay alive in the playoff race. Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah’s maiden five-wicket haul went in vain as the Mumbai Indians batting unit once again failed to live up to expectation and were bundled out for 113.

Chasing the tricky target, Mumbai Indians lost Rohit Sharma early courtesy of a controversial decision by the third umpire. Southee managed to outsmart Rohit as the ball went past close from the edge of his bat and hit the thigh pad as Sheldon Jackson took a one-handed stunner behind the stumps. The on-field umpire gave it not out but KKR took the review straightaway. In the TV replay, the ultraedge witnessed spikes on the snickometer when the ball was close to Rohit’s bat. However, there were also some spikes even before the ball came close to the MI skipper. Third-umpire Bruce Oxenford ordered the on-field umpire to change his decision as it was given out.

Mumbai failed to recover from that blow as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Ishan Kishan fought hard with a 51-run knock but he didn’t get much support from other end. As he result in he decided to take things into his own hands by playing some risky shots and he lost his wicket to Pat Cummins who pulled KKR back in the game with three wickets in an over which included Kishan, Daniel Sams and Murugan Ashwin. The Aussie pacer was the pick of the bowler for KKR with three scalps while Andre Russell took two wickets. They received great support from the other bowlers as Tim Southee and Varun Chakaravarthy.

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KKR still makes their dream of playoffs alive, after a wonderful knockout for MI

Mumbai Indians missed the services of Suryakumar Yadav in the middle-order as he has been ruled out of remained of the season after sustaining muscle strain. While it was another disappointing night for veteran Kieron Pollard with the bat he failed to take his team to the victory line and was dismissed on 15 off 16 balls. Earlier, Bumrah’s sensational spell included 18 dot balls, which was instrumental in Mumbai Indians restricting KKR to 165/9 in 20 overs.

For Kolkata, Venkatesh Iyer perished early but not before getting the side to their first fifty-plus stand in power-play with a 24-ball 43 while Nitish Rana made the same score in 26 balls. Pat Cummins took three wickets in an over including that of half-centurion Ishan Kishan as Mumbai Indians collapsed to be bowled out for 113 in 17.3 overs to succumb to their ninth defeat of IPL 2022 on Monday night. Chasing 166, MI were in a decent spot at 83/3 when the slide began with the fall of Tim David. The KKR thus won by 52 runs to keep their faint hopes of making it to the playoffs

Venkatesh made his intentions clear of maximising power-play, by coming down the pitch and slicing Riley Meredith over point. It was followed by him shuffling across and scooping a six over fine leg. Venkatesh then brought up Kolkata’s fifty by getting an outer edge running through third man off Kumar Kartikeya Singh and then brought out slow-sweep to hit a clean six over deep mid-wicket. However, after a tidy over in the powerplay, Bumrah returned to the attack in the 15th over to dismantle KKR’s lower-middle order.