Mumbai needed to win the match against the Knight Riders and they did so, which could be the beginning of a fairytale comeback.
VIVO IPL 2018: Slow-starters Mumbai Indians win against Kolkata Knight Riders to keep playoff hopes alive
Mumbai’s performance against Kolkata was not a promising one, as they suddenly slowed down after their blazing start and later dropped catches at crucial points during opposition’s batting.
But they somehow managed to post a competitive total of 181 which eventually proved too much for the Knight Riders in a match at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
The toss was won by the KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik and he asked the opposition to bat first, as Mumbai’s Suryakumar Yadav and Ewin Lewis opened the innings.
Both of them scored at a healthy rate and Mumbai reached to 56 runs without losing a wicket during the powerplay overs.
Yadav (59) scored his fourth half century of the season. But Lewis (43), who was initially struggling a bit but later found his bearings, was caught by Chris Lynn off the bowling of Andre Russell, as Mumbai lost their first wicket at 91.
Skipper Rohit Sharma came next but soon departed, having caught by substitute Rinku Singh off the bowling of Sunil Narine as Mumbai were 106-2.
The scoring rate went down even more as Suryakumar Yadav edged a Russell delivery to Karthik. Mumbai reached a good total later, thanks to the parts played by the middle-order batsmen− Hardik Pandya (35*), Krunal Pandya (14) and JP Duminy (13*).
Narine, who had bowled his full quota of four overs, could not open the innings for KKR due to some illness. So it was up to Chris Lynn and the U-19 superstar Shubman Gill to give their side a good start.
But both the batsmen failed as Lynn was caught at 17 by Jasprit Bumrah while the Pandya brothers combined to get Gill out at 7.
KKR were already 28-2 and the things could have got worse had Mayank Markande not dropped Robin Uthappa.
Eventually KKR managed to get 168-6 and handed Mumbai a 13-run win and two critical points as Mumbai live another day in the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League.