IPL 2024: Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 51st Match – Who Said What?

At Wankhede Stadium, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Mumbai Indians for the first time in twelve years. The bowlers on the night were outstanding, and KKR ultimately completed the task rather easily. The team captained by Shreyas Iyer handled the conditions well in the second innings and defeated their bitter rivals by 24 runs on a ground that offered many of opportunities for bowling.

When they batted first, the Knight Riders led the game by one for the first thirty minutes. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer, and Phil Salt were all crucially removed by Nuwan Thushara, who caused chaos with the new ball. Though he was well-supported by Jasprit Bumrah, who also claimed three wickets, Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey were unstoppable. The pair pieced together an important partnership of 83 runs, which proved to be the difference in the end.

KKR eventually scored 169 runs, which seemed to be 20 runs short at the midway point but ultimately proved to be plenty. The KKR bowling unit had a wonderful evening with the ball, thanks to the outstanding performances of Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakravarthy, and Sunil Narine. In order to help KKR win the match and solidify their position at the top of the points table, Narine and Chakravarthy bowled in tandem to halt MI’s offensive in the middle overs. Starc delivered the game-winning blow.

1. Is Raja kaun from Mumbai?

Nobody thought KKR would be able to rally after they were down 57/5 in the first inning. KKR was able to score a respectable total thanks to the dominance of Venkatesh Iyer, who struck a century against MI in the 2023 IPL. Iyer made 70 runs off of 52 balls. Impact Player Manish Pandey gave him excellent support while scoring 42 runs, which greatly aided KKR at the bat.

2. Class is permanent, whereas form is transient.

Mitchell Starc, who endured a lot of abuse during the season due to his high price and lacklustre performances, took four wickets against Mumbai and was instrumental in KKR’s victory. He was well-aided by Narine and Chakravarthy in getting wickets in the middle overs, but Starc’s removal of Tim David was the key wicket in the end.

3. Outstanding leadership

Shreyas Iyer once again demonstrated his exceptional cricketing intelligence. He deserves a great deal of credit for the way he rotated bowlers tonight. In the powerplay, KKR took early wickets thanks to a bold but necessary decision to give the ball to Narine and Chakravarthy. It was a crucial choice to bowl Andre Russell at the appropriate moment. He made all the risky choices, and in the end, they paid off.

Also read: IPL 2024: Kolkata Knight Riders 1st innings highlights against MI in Match 51

Losing skipper Hardik Pandya said:

I mean obviously in the batting inning, we couldn’t form partnerships and kept losing wickets, in T20s if you don’t form partnerships, it will cost you. Not much, there are a lot of questions but that will take some time to answer but for now, not much to say. As you mentioned, the bowlers did a fantastic job, the wicket got a little better after the first innings, the dew came on.

We will go through the game and see what could we have done better. You keep fighting, that is what I tell to myself, never leave the battlefield, tough days come but good also come here, it’s challenging but challenges make you better

Winning skipper Shreyas Iyer said:

Just having a conversation with Starcy. Told him how important this game for us. If we lost this, would’ve had to win two out of four. Would take this anyday. Beautiful victory for us. Hope we could’ve cherished this one. But we have a match day after as well. Certainly, with this impact player rule, it has helped us in this game. Manish has been eyeing an opportunity from Day 1.

Today he got it. We got to a commendable total. All I had to say to the boys was we can defend it with our bowling lineup. They were unreal to be honest (on the two spinners). Absolutely spot on in terms of execution with line and lengths. He’s been eagerly waiting to go out and express himself in earlier games as well (on Venkatesh Iyer)

POTM Venkatesh Iyer said:

As a professional cricketer, I have to be flexible in terms of situation. When I started hitting the ball well, two more wickets fell and I thought I have to play the anchor role. This is the fourth or fifth time Manish has padded up. This time he got to bat. Rather than sending Russell and Ramandeep higher, better to have Manish who can play the anchor role. Ball was holding and it was a two paced wicket.

I try to be a smarter cricketer. Would’ve been easy for me to go after Piyush Chawla and the fast bowlers. Team needed me to be there till the end. I’ve been a huge fan of dada. Went to ask him about my stance and technical aspects. Was a fruitful conversation. It’s coming through in my stance and other aspects in the nets.