Twitter Reactions: Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah help MI brush aside KKR by 49 runs

The Mumbai Indians (MI) have shrugged off their poor effort against CSK to win their second game of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) who didn’t look quite ready for this game at all. Rohit Sharma was the star of the day with a 54-ball 80 after which the MI bowlers, especially Jasprit Bumrah defended 195 easily to register a handsome 49-run win.

Chasing 196, the KKR didn’t get the start they expected from Sunil Narine and Shubman Gill. The duo of James Pattinson and Trent Boult kept them quiet and both the batsmen succumbed to pressure and were back in the hut by the fifth over with the score reading only 25. Surprisingly, Dinesh Karthik promoted himself to number three while Nitish Rana walked in at the fall of the fifth wicket.

But both the batsmen couldn’t up the ante and match the required run-rate. MI skipper Rohit Sharma rotated his bowlers nicely and got the overs done from their fifth bowlers. Karthik played some delightful strokes but KKR were always behind. Rana too looked good during his brief stay but at one stage, it felt as if they once again left too much to do for Andre Russell.

Karthik and Rana were dismissed in quick succession and when Russell came out to bat, KKR needed 119 runs from 46 deliveries. To make things worse, Eoin Morgan wasn’t middling the ball at all and the dot balls from him also increased pressure. The only hope was from this duo for KKR but Rohit had kept three overs of his ace bowler Bumrah with seven overs to go.

And he didn’t disappoint this time and knocked off Russell who literally never got going scoring a run-a-ball 11. Bumrah proved what a champion bowler he is by sending back Eoin Morgan to officially close out any contest in the game in the 16th over itself. To everyone’s surprise, though Pat Cummins had some fun in the middle and reduced the winning margin for MI. He hit four sixes off Jasprit Bumrah in a single to disturb his exceptional figures.

But that didn’t change the end result as the KKR only reached 146 runs for the loss of nine wickets to lose the game by 49 runs.

Rohit Sharma continues his good run against KKR

Earlier, MI lost Quinton de Kock in the second over itself with Shivam Mavi striking off the second ball off his spell. Rohit Sharma then played out a maiden and after two overs, not many runs were on the board. This is where Suryakumar Yadav stepped up and smacked 16 runs off the third over of the innings. This over gave momentum to the innings and the partnership began to flourish.

Rohit was quiet until Pat Cummins was brought into the attack in the fifth over. The Australian bowler bowled a couple of short of a length deliveries only to trigger the MI skipper as he smacked maximums showing his prowess. He got going from here on and added 90 runs along with Surya. The duo targeted Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav in their respective first overs.

However, the spinner came back well after the strategic time out which led to Surya getting run-out in search of a non-existent second run. The fall of a second wicket led to the run-rate coming down with Saurabh Tiwary also taking a bit of time to get hold of the conditions.

Come the 14th over of the innings though Rohit Sharma decided to break the hoodoo and hit Kuldeep for a couple of sixes in the over. He had crossed the 50-run mark before it as well and completed 200 sixes in the IPL too. However, when he was looking to open up even more, Shivam Mavi got the big fish. By then, the Hitman had done his job scoring 80 off 54 deliveries.

MI didn’t get the final flourish as expected but they managed to reach 195 runs for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs which seemed par at the halfway mark. Shivam Mavi impressed for the KKR but the other bowlers, especially Pat Cummins, disappointed. The score proved to be enough in the end as the defending champions got off the mark to register two crucial points.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: