IPL SRL | MI vs KKR Evaluation Chart - Rohit, Bumrah star as Mumbai dispel dismal KKR

ByAnirudh Suresh, SportsCafe Editor

06/25/2020

A brutal onslaught from the hands of Rohit Sharma, who scored a fine 46-ball 80, and an impeccable spell of fast bowling from Jasprit Bumrah handed MI an easy 85-run victory over the Knight Riders. It was a dismal showing with the bat by KKR, who managed to score just 118/9 off their 20 overs.

Match Review

Winning the toss and electing to bat, Mumbai’s start reverberated with the city’s nickname - the city of dreams - as the duo of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock ripped the KKR bowling to shreds to hurry their way to 68/0 at the end of the powerplay. The middle-overs saw further pain being inflicted on KKR, as MI brought up their 100 in the 10th over, but de Kock’s dismissal helped slow proceedings down. The duo of Rohit and Lynn then carried the onslaught to threaten a 220+ score, but some disciplined bowling from the KKR pacers, who choked both Suryarkumar Yadav and Pollard at the death, meant that the Blue finished on 203/4.

A brisk start upfront was the need of the hour for KKR, but that was quashed on the very first ball, as Shubman Gill departed for a golden duck. Bumrah then made the KKR batsmen dance to his tunes and together with Coulter-Nile, the Indian stalwart reduced KKR to 24/3 at the end of the powerplay. Morgan’s dismissal in the 7th over pretty much sealed the deal, but DK and Russell tried to salvage ‘some’ pride through a slow 38-run stand. Once Russell departed, the game was headed towards a painful finish and both teams went through the motions towards the end as MI scripted an 85-run victory.

You can check out the scorecard and the live match tracker here

Turning Point

The turning point of the encounter came on the very first ball of the chase. Jasprit Bumrah’s dismissal of Shubman Gill was a dagger to KKR’s heart and it looked like the wicket demoralized the chasing side with the snap of a finger. The KKR batsmen, for the rest of the chase, looked directionless and the fact that they eventually were battered in the chase came as no surprise.

Highs and Lows

The punishment dished out to the KKR pacers up-front stood tall as the undisputed high of the game. Prasidh and Cummins astonishingly were dismantled by the MI openers, who blasted 59 runs off the first 5 overs bowled by the duo. It was an act of rage that completely took everyone by surprise.

The approach of Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana felt like a slap in the face of the fans. Yes, they did lose Gill on the first ball, but for a vast majority of the powerplay, it looked like Gill and Rana were more than happy to use Gill’s dismissal as an excuse for their ineptness. Together, the duo scored 17 off 28 balls and tested the nerve of every person watching the game.

Rating Charts

Powerplay exploitation: Mumbai 10/10 and Kolkata 1/10

The duo of Pat Cummins and Prasidh Krishna are perceived to be a pretty potent new-ball pairing, but Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock made the two KKR lads look like club cricketers who hadn’t bowled in months. After collecting 14 runs off the first over bowled by Cummins, both Rohit and QDK latched onto the quick start to maul the KKR bowling. Eight boundaries were all the duo hit, but the sheer proactiveness in their batting - just 8 dots - took MI to 68/0 at the end of the powerplay.

Shubman Gill’s dismissal on the very first ball of the chase rocked KKR back instantly, but what hurt them, even more, was Jasprit Bumrah’s exquisite, flawless spell of bowling which literally won MI the game in the powerplay. In a spell which read 3-1-11-2 - yes, he bowled a wicket maiden in the 6th over - Bumrah toyed with the KKR batsmen to such an extent that 24 was all the chasing side could manage at the end of the 6th over. Such was Bumrah’s impact that losing 3 wickets aside, KKR’s required run rate had risen up to 12.8 by the end of the powerplay.

Middle-overs manoeuvring: Mumbai 8.5/10 and Kolkata 4/10

Leeching off of the momentum they’d gathered in the powerplay, both Rohit and QDK took the attack to the KKR spinners to stay two steps ahead of their opponents in the contest. The first four overs of Narine and Kuldeep yielded 36 runs and it looked like there was no stopping Rohit, who raced off to a 28-ball fifty. De Kock’s departure in the 11th over put the brakes on MI’s scoring for a while, but that made Rohit cut loose, as ‘Hitman’ went berserk between overs 12-14, before eventually perishing for 80. Rohit’s onslaught ensured that MI were 149/2 after 15 overs - 81 off the middle overs.

All it took three balls for Mumbai to open the floodgates in the middle overs - Rahul Chahar dismissed Eoin Morgan - and from thereon, it looked crystal clear that there was going to be just one winner: Mumbai Indians. At 26/4, any hope of a KKR fight looked hopeless and the next few overs proved the same. A 38-run stand between Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell then ensued, but when the Jamaican departed in the 13th over, his side needed 140 off 45 balls; it was one of the more irrelevant stands in SRL history. KKR eventually ended the middle-overs on 85/6, having scored 61 runs in the phase for the loss of 2 wickets.

Death bowling:- Kolkata 6/10 and Mumbai Na/10

KKR, heading into the death, would have deemed anything under 200 a success, and they almost managed to do so - eventually, MI ended up scoring 203. It was contrasting fortunes for the MI batters as while at one end, Lynn was teeing off, both Suryakumar Yadav and Pollard, at the other, found it hard to get going. Both Prasidh and Cummins made amends for their horror-show up-front and despite KKR leaking 54 off the final five, it looked like they did successfully manage to limit the damage - to a mild extent.

KKR needed 119 runs off the last 5 overs to win the game and it was a phase which made one feel sad about the non-existence of mutual termination of matches in limited-overs cricket. DK was a lone warrior for KKR, but his effort mattered for little as a regulation performance at the death by Mumbai ensured an 85-run victory for the Blues.

Match Frenzy O Meter - Average

The first innings of the match convinced me that we were all in for an absolute treat, but it did not take long post the restart to realize that it was not going to be the case. Such was the uninspiring nature of KKR’s chase that it ended up nullifying the efforts of the MI batsmen to entertain the crowd.