IPL 2017 | Mumbai trounce Kolkata to enter final

05/19/2017

Riding on dream spells from Karn Sharma (4/16) and Jasprit Bumrah (3/7) Mumbai crushed Kolkata in the second qualifier encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore by 6 wickets. Chasing a paltry 108 to seal a spot in the final against Pune, Mumbai reached their target with 33 balls to spare.

Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 107/10 (Suryakumar Yadav 31; Ishank Jaggi 28; Karn Sharma 4/16, Jasprit Bumrah 3/7) lost to Mumbai Indians 111/4 (Krunal Pandya 45*, Rohit Sharma 26; Piyush Chawla 2/34, Nathan Coulter-Nile 1/15) by 6 wickets.

Rohit Sharma won the toss for Mumbai Indians and put Kolkata Knight Riders into bat as Mitchell Johnson replaced the injured Mitchell McClenaghan for MI. Gautam Gambhir, on the other hand, made two changes to the KKR side that beat SRH at the same venue with Ankit Rajpoot and Colin de Grandhomme replacing Yusuf Pathan and Trent Boult respectively.

Early blows cripple Kolkata

Jasprit Bumrah got Mumbai off to the best possible start as he removed the dangerous Chris Lynn in the second over of the match before Sunil Narine(10) and Robin Uthappa (1) followed suit soon after to leave Kolkata at a meager 25/3 at the end of the powerplay. All eyes turned to KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir again but Karn Sharma made sure Mumbai’s good start was not wasted as the leggie sent Gambhir and his successor Colin de Grandhomme packing off consecutive balls in the seventh over. The early procession of wickets left KKR at 43/5 at the halfway stage of their innings, with Suryakumar Yadav and Ishank Jaggi trying to claw their way back into the game.

KKR end with a whimper

Thankfully for the Knight Riders, the duo did not let their side down as they stitched together a much-needed partnership. More importantly, they also managed to up the run rate by finding the boundaries on regular occasions to take the score to 83/5 after 14 overs. But keeping with the trend of the game, Karn Sharma returned to claim Ishank Jaggi’s wicket. his fourth scalp of the night, in the 15th over which ended the 56-run stand between the pair. And in a way, the end of that partnership also brought an end to KKR’s resistance as Nathan Coulter-Nile and Suryakumar Yadav fell soon after. Finally, Kolkata were put out of their misery when Lasith Malinga cleaned up Ankit Rajpoot for just 4 runs with 7 balls of the Kolkata innings still remaining, as Mumbai were set a paltry target of 108 to seal their spot in the final against Pune on Sunday.

Rohit and Krunal stabilize innings after early losses

Defending a small total early wickets were the need of the hour and Kolkata were off to an ideal start as Piyush Chawla removed Lendl Simmons LBW in the second over. Umesh Yadav added fuel to Kolkata’s fire when he bagged Parthiv Patel in the next over before Chawla produced a brilliant delivery to send Ambati Rayudu packing as well and at the end of the power play, the match was on a knife's edge with Mumbai at 36/3. MI decided to promote Krunal Pandya up the order to negate the effect of the spinners and it was a move that paid huge dividends. Rohit and Krunal guided their team through the overs of the spinners to reach a comfortable position of 64/3 with 10 overs to go.

Mumbai ensure Maharashtra derby final

Once the duo had steadied themselves, they tore into Piyush Chawla in the 11th over smashing the leggie for 16 runs, to all but ensure Mumbai’s spot in the final. After that it was only a matter of time before Mumbai completed the formalities. Finally, despite losing Rohit in the 12th over for 26 Mumbai managed to secure the win and a place in the IPL final with 6 wickets to spare. Mumbai will take on Pune, on Sunday, to decide the winner of the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League. However, Pune have been the bogey club for the two-time Champions this year having beaten their local rivals every time the two have met this season.