IPL 2020: Mumbai Indians crush Kolkata Knight Riders by 8 wickets, registers their 6th win

Ahead of Friday’s game between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, the head to head form against these teams had already showcased the evident edge that Rohit Sharma’s team have over KKR. Now with this 8-wicket win against KKR, Mumbai have continued their dominant form of 4-1 wins in the last 5 head to head games against the Kolkata-based franchise.

Kicking off their campaigns in the second half of IPL 2020, Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians locked horns with Eoin Morgan’s Kolkata Knight Riders at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Yes, Eoin Morgan’s KKR as Dinesh Karthik, the franchise’s captain for two and a half seasons, stepped down as captain to focus more on his batting. The promotion of England’s World Cup-winning captain to the leadership role in KKR came as a surprise, right ahead of their 8th fixture in IPL 2020.

Many fans across social media platforms might have breathed a sigh of relief over Morgan being named captain, especially since they believed Dinesh Karthik could be finally focussing on his role of a finisher. Instead, Karthik was asked to come in at No.4 and the former KKR captain was bettered by a googly outside off from leg-spinner Rahul Chahar. At that point, KKR were already struggling at 42/4 off 7.4 overs. The MI leggie was on hattrick given that he had also dismissed set batsman Shubman Gill (21 off 23) right before Karthik(4 off 8). However, he couldn’t complete the hattrick as the new batsman Andre Russell carefully drove the fuller legbreak to extra cover.

Rahul Chahar’s excellent bowling (4-0-18-2) was testimony to



the fact that the KKR management were missing out ‘Chinaman’ Kuldeep Yadav’s services, especially in the absence of Sunil Narine. In fact, ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah (4-0-22-1) also showcased a different side to his yorker-heavy talent and charged at KKR with fearsome bouncers including the wicket that he got of Russell (12 off 9). Brendon McCullum and his team needed to bring in Lockie Ferguson as that could’ve been the game-changer for them given Bumrah’s performance.

Meanwhile, ace-pacer Pat Cummins blasted his first-ever T20 fifty (53* off 36) and his unbeaten 6th-wicket partnership with Eoin Morgan (39* off 29) saw KKR to a total of 148/5.

Instead, they added off-spinner Chris Green to the playing XI who ended up leaking 24 runs of his wicketless 2.5 overs. With 23/1 in his completed 4-over spell, Varun Chakravarthy was the only KKR bowler who dodged humiliation at the hands of Mumbai Indians’ batsmen, chasing a target of 149. Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma gave a great start to Mumbai, carrying on their great run in the Powerplay of IPL 2020, and added 94 runs (off just 63 balls) in the opening partnership. Thereon, Mumbai’s chase was rather smooth as de Kock remained unbeaten on 78 off 44 as Mumbai Indians won the game by 8 wickets. All-rounder Hardik Pandya enjoyed a cameo of 21* off 11 to see his team to a big win.

Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians, continuing their sublime form in IPL 2020 with 6 wins in 8 games so far, now move ahead as table toppers in IPL 2020 and also with a record of 21-6 against KKR in the history of the Indian Premier League.