IPL 10, Match 7 MI v KKR Review: Rana and Hardik clinch a nail biting thriller for Mumbai

It turned out to be yet another night for the young guns of Mumbai Indians as the home team won an epic encounter against the Kolkata Knight Riders by 4 wickets and with a delivery to spare at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. It was the lusty blows of Hardik Pandya and Nitish Rana which enabled the hosts to reach the target of 179 in their allotted 20 overs. ‘

Earlier on in the day, it was the mind boggling innings from Manish Pandey which propelled the visitors to a score of 178 in their 20 overs. The 47 balls 81 was decorated with 5 fours and 5 sixes. Left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers with 3 wickets to his name.

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl. The speedster from Sri Lanka Lasith Malinga who has been an integral member of the squad since the inception of the League came to bowl the opening over after missing out the first game against the Rising Pune Supergiant due to national duties. It was a good start to the innings by the pacer as he delivered 5 dot balls on a trot but Chris Lynn ruined the over by smashing a boundary through the mid on region.

He was in no mood to put off the accelerator as the Big Bash hero smashed another boundary of Mitchell McLeneghan in the next over and Gambhir joined in the act with one more in the 4th delivery. Gambhir looked in good touch and smashed Jasprit Bumrah for a couple of boundaries in the 3rd over followed by a monstrous six of Lynn in the 4th over of Malinga. He literally slapped the short of length delivery over the square leg boundary.

Left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya was introduced in the powerplay and the move worked wonders for Mumbai as the tweaker dismissed Gambhir and Robin Uthappa in his opening over to peg back the visitors. Gambhir attempted a sweep and was holed out at square leg. Uthappa went for a big hit up front and was caught by Hardik Pandya at deep midwicket.

Despite losing two wickets in succession KKR was in a strong position with 59/2 at the end of the powerplay overs. The hero from the previous match couldn’t convert his start for a big one this time around and he was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah with a full-length delivery. It was on the good length area and would have crashed onto the stumps. Suddenly KKR was in a bit of a bother losing 3 wickets pretty quickly.

Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan looked to rebuild the innings but the latter couldn’t get going and was dismissed by Krunal. He attempted a big shot over the extra cover region but was again holed out by the younger brother Hardik to give his elder brother the 3rd wicket. He eventually finished with impressive figures of 3/24 in his allotted 4 overs.

While KKR was staring down the barrel with a middle order collapse, Manish Pandey was keepings their chins up with a sensible innings. After getting off to a pretty sedate start he pressed on the accelerator towards the 14th over mark when he smashed McLeneghan for a huge six. He followed it up with a four and a six of Jasprit Bumrah in the 16th over to set the hopes for a big total.

Pandey was literally unstoppable in the final few over as the 1st Indian centurion in IPL history went hammers and tongs. He remained unbeaten on 81 of a mere 47 deliveries, an innings which included 5 fours and the same number of sixes. Chasing a more than competitive total of 179 to win openers Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel began in an attacking fashion. Parthiv Patel began with a couple of boundaries of Trent Boult with Buttler also smashing a couple of boundaries and a six in the next 3 overs.

Mumbai raced off to 44/0 in the first 5 overs and looked in complete command of proceedings. Both the batsmen were looking in ominous touch and were making light work of the KKR bowlers. After smashing six of Kuldeep Yadav in the 8th over, Parthiv Patel was dismissed by the left-arm tweaker in the same over after attempting a sweep again.

His partner Buttler followed him soon to the pavilion as Ankit Rajpoot dismissed the Englishman with a low full toss. It was moving away and would have missed the stumps but the onfield umpire thought otherwise and ruled it in favour of the bowling team. If it wasn’t enough captain Rohit Sharma was given another howler by umpire Nandan. It was a terrible decision as the right-hander smashed it onto his pads.

Youngster Nitish Rana and Krunal Pandya came out in the middle to resurrect the run chase. The elder of the Pandya brothers played some good shots but before getting into his groove, the southpaw was dismissed by Ankit Rajpoot. Hardik Pandya walked out in the middle to join Rana and the duo took off from the outset smashing some big blows. Rana was particularly brilliant with his improvisations and played some great scoop shots.

With 49 runs required off the last 3 overs, the match was tilted in the favour of Kolkata Knight Riders. In the 18th over Rana and Hardik smashed a six each to pull the calculation down to 30 required off the last 2. Nitish Rana began with a brilliant scoop over the keeper’s head which yielded a six in the very first delivery of the 18th over.

After smashing another boundary Rana was dismissed by the pacer Rajpoot but with Hardik Pandya still out in the middle, Mumbai would have backed them to chase that down. Following his wicket, Hardik smashed a huge six over the midwicket boundary to bring down the calculation to 11 required of the final over.

Pandya smashed a boundary of Trent Boult in the 2nd delivery of the final over and was dropped in the 4th delivery. It was a big miss as Pandya smashed a boundary in the penultimate delivery of the match to win it for the home team by 4 wickets and with a delivery to spare.

Brief Scores

Kolkata Knight Riders 178/7 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 81, Krunal Pandya 3/24)

Mumbai Indians 180/6 in 19.5 overs (Nitish Rana 50, Hardik Pandya 29*, Ankit Rajpoot 3/37)

Mumbai Indians won by 4 wickets (with a ball remaining)