Abu Dhabi: Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Eoin Morgan-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight wickets in 32th match of the Indian Premier League 2020 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.
KKR’s new skipper Morgan decided to bat after winning the toss. Pat Cummins (53 not out off 36 balls) and Eoin Morgan (39 not out off 29 balls) somehow managed to take their side to 148/5 wickets after the two-time champions suffered a top-order collapse. However, the decision backfired as the top half of his batting lineup were back in the hut with just 61 runs on board in 10.4 overs. It was Cummins and Morgan’s crucial unbeaten 87-run partnership for the sixth wicket which helped KKR near the 150-run mark.
MI pacers Trent Boult (1/32), Jasprit Bumrah (1/22) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (1/51) all took a wicket each while spinner Rahul Chahar (2/18) took two wickets off consecutive balls in the eighth over.
Chasing a modest total of 149, MI got off to an excellent start, with opening batsmen Rohit Sharma (35 off 36 balls) and de Kock (78 off 44 balls) bringing up team’s fifty inside the powerplay itself. De Kock marched on after Sharma’s dismissal and, assisted by Hardik Pandya (21 off 11 balls), got the total in seventeenth over of the match.
With the win, MI have again moved to the top of the points table. While it was MI’s sixth win from eight games, KKR suffered their second consecutive and fourth defeat overall in the ongoing season.