Kolkata Knight Riders claimed a rare win against Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2021, by seven wickets, largely due to Venkatesh Iyer (53 in 30 balls) and Rahul Tripathi (74 not out in 42). Kolkata had last beaten Mumbai in 2019, and had won only one out of the 13 previous bilateral clashes. Thanks to the win, Kolkata moved up to fourth place, while Mumbai slipped to sixth.
Part-timer Nitish Rana opened the bowling for Kolkata. Rohit Sharma answered with a boundary through cover, and soon found his groove. After two relatively quiet overs, Mumbai scored 47 runs in last four overs of the Powerplay. Prasidh Krishna’s first over went for 16 as Quinton de Kock also joined the fun.
But the spinners kept Kolkata in the game. Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy delivered a few tight overs before Narine provided the first blow to Mumbai. Rohit was caught in the deep for 33, but not before becoming the first to score 1,000 runs against one IPL franchise. By the end of 12 overs, both Narine (4-0-20-1) and Chakravarthy (4-0-22-0) completed their quotas, and got the run rate down considerably below 7.50.
Prasidh returned in the 13th over and immediately dismissed the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav. De Kock soon reached his fifty before perishing in Prasidh's next over. At 106/3 after 15 overs, Mumbai were in more trouble.
Russell and Lockie Ferguson bowled four of the last five overs with a mix of slower and yorkers. Ishan Kishan did not last, and top edged a pull of Ferguson. Kieron Pollard hit a couple of big shots before getting run out in the last over, and Mumbai posted 155/6 in 20 overs. At one stage, Mumbai Indians were expected to put beyond 170 but Ferguson and the spinners did well.
Kolkata started their chase in blazing fashion. Iyer started from where he had left in the last match. He and Shubman Gill hit a six each in the first over, from Trent Boult, setting the tone for the chase. Iyer hit another six and two fours in the next over, from Adam Milne, and Kolkata raced to 30 in two overs. Rohit had to bring Jasprit Bumrah, who delivered with the wicket of Gill in the last ball of the third over.
Tripathi joined Iyer, and they took the Knights to 63/1 in the Powerplay. The target looked reachable. Boundaries continued to flow as the duo hit at least one boundary in each of the first 10 overs.
Rahul Chahar missed a tough chance in the 11th over, and Tripathi continued. By then, Iyer reached his maiden IPL fifty. Tripathi also got his fifty with a streaky six through the third man. Mumbai looked rattled, and a few fielding errors added to their woes. Bumrah returned to dismiss Iyer and Eoin Morgan, but Kolkata were never under pressure after the great start. Rana finished the match in the first ball of the 16th over.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 155/6 in 20 overs (de Kock 55; Ferguson 2-27) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 159/3 in 15.1 overs (Tripathi 74*; Bumrah 3-43) by 7 wickets with 29 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Sunil Narine.