Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium for the first time in 12 years on Friday. Despite the lopsided 9-1 head-to-head record at the venue in favour of the hosts, KKR were the firm favourites going into the encounter on current form. KKR and MI sat on opposite ends of the IPL 2024 points table before the match started and it remained the same after the match ended. But in between, there was a lot of drama. It wasn’t as it was as the 24-run victory may seem like. In fact, for the better part of the KKR innings, it seemed like MI would maintain their spotless track record by returning to winning ways against the Purple army.
KKR were 57/5 at one stage, really struggling to come to terms with the unusually slow Wankhede Pitch. That is when the KKR think tank used the Impact Player rule to the maximum effect. Manish Pandey came in place of Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who had already been dismissed. The experienced right-hander, playing in his first game of the season, stitched an all-important 83-run stand for the sixth wicket with Venkatesh Iyer to bring the KKR innings back on track.
Pandey was dismissed for 42 off 31 balls, but Iyer made sure KKR were poised to cross the 180-run mark quite comfortably. But they suffered another collapse when things were looking all uphill for the two-time champions. Andre Russell was run out due to a horrible mixup with Iyer and KKR folded for 169 in 19.5 overs. Iyer scored 70 off 52 balls.
But the position that KKR were in, 169, was not bad by any means. In fact, it proved to be 24 runs too many for MI as the hosts were bowled out for 145 in 18.5 overs.
Former Australian cricketer asserted that the Knight Riders had no right to win the match after losing the first five wickets so early in the clash against the five-time champion MI. Watson said he was baffled by some of MI’s tactics.
Watson bowled over by KKR’s remarkable comeback against MI
“KKR had no right to win that game tonight after the position they were in five wickets down. It just shows the fight that they have and also just some of the things that happened. Some of the decisions that were made whether that was bowling changes or batting lineup deployment, some of those decisions were very baffling just to really give KKR the upper hand in a game that was just on a knife’s edge at certain times,” Watson said on Jio Cinema.
The 42-year-old further stated that this victory will give the Shreyas Iyer-led side a lot of confidence.
“Look that will give KKR so much confidence to know that they don’t have to be at their very best and be in a position where the game was nearly done and they’ve got the fight and determination to find their way to actually get on the right side of the result,” the two-time IPL champion added.
Mitchell Starc made a terrific comeback in the tournament returning with a figure of 4-33 in just 3.5 spells, handing KKR a 24-run victory. Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine both finished with identical figures of 2/22, including some big wickets in the first half of the chase which put KKR on top in the match.
Following the win, KKR stand in second place on IPL 2024 standings with 14 points. Meanwhile, MI hold ninth place with 6 points by their name.
KKR will next take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.