A ruthless Kolkata thrashed defending champions Mumbai by seven wickets at Zayed Stadium on Thursday. The two-time winners, who had managed to pick up only two wins in the first leg, have now grabbed four points in the space of four days in UAE. Also, Kolkata has climbed to fourth in the points table. Meanwhile, Mumbai has suffered their second successive defeat and dropped to sixth in the standings.
Chasing 156, Venkatesh Iyer and Rahul Tripathi put on a show. The uncapped pair hammered Mumbai bowlers to all corners of the ground. Iyer struck his maiden fifty, while Tripathi remained unbeaten on 74. Apart from Quinton de Kock’s half-century, Mumbai fans didn’t have much to cheer about in the match. The pace trio of Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, and Adam Milne combined conceded 95 runs in nine overs.
A bright start
Earlier in the match, Eoin Morgan won the toss and decided to bowl first. Rohit Sharma and De Kock set up a half-century stand. The Mumbai captain, who replaced Anmolpreet Singh, got off the mark with a boundary in the first ball. Morgan deployed spinners early, but both openers were untroubled. The South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman went after the pacers. He took Lockie Ferguson to the cleaners in his first over and cleared the ropes twice in the last over of the powerplay.
The pair maintained the brisk scoring rate, forcing Morgan to change his bowlers frequently. De Kock hammered consecutive boundaries off Andre Russell’s first over, which yielded 14 runs. The left-hander moved into the 40s, while Mumbai amassed 77 runs in nine overs. Sunil Narine made the first breakthrough after Rohit skied the ball to Shubman Gill at long-on.
Middle-over blues
Mumbai lost their second wicket when Prasidh Krishna got Suryakumar Yadav to edge the ball into the hands of Dinesh Karthik. It was the 31-year-old’s third successive single-digit score in the tournament. De Kock brought up his fifty and Mumbai’s 100 in the 14th over. However, Prasidh dented Mumbai’s progress yet again. The Proteas batsman went for a slog but holed out to Narine at mid-wicket. At the end of 15 overs, Mumbai’s score stood at 106/3.
Ishan Kishan made his way back for 14. With three overs remaining, Mumbai was a long way away from posting a challenging total. Pollard scored 18 runs off Prasidh’s fourth. But an excellent final over from Ferguson, which saw Mumbai lose the wickets of Pollard and Krunal Pandya, helped Kolkata restrict them to 155/6.
Cruise mode
Boult and Milne wreaked havoc in the power play against Chennai on Sunday. But the New Zealand pair got thrashed by the Kolkata openers in Abu Dhabi. Gill and Iyer smacked a six each against Boult in the first over of the innings. Meanwhile, Milne gave away two fours and a six in his first six balls. Rohit brought Bumrah into the attack early in the run chase. Though the Indian pacer conceded two boundaries, he removed Gill for 13.
Tripathi and Iyer took Kolkata to 63/1 at the end of the powerplay. Spinners Krunal and Rahul Chahar couldn’t stop the flow of the runs. The duo scored at least ten runs in an over and went past 100 at the halfway point of the innings. Iyer clinched his maiden fifty in 25 balls. At the other end, Tripathi reached his half-century with a six. He piled more misery on Bumrah by scoring a boundary in the next ball. The pacer put an end to the 88-run with the wicket of Iyer.
The breakthrough came too late as Kolkata was within the touching distance of a fourth win in the campaign. Tripathi and Morgan made 17 runs off Chahar in the 13th over. Nitish Rana, who came to bat after Morgan fell for 7, played a reverse sweep to the boundary to help Kolkata complete an emphatic win against Mumbai.
Magnificent Iyer
Iyer has taken the tournament by storm. The lanky batsman continued from where he left off against Bangalore. He dismantled the mighty Mumbai bowling attack and put his team in the driving seat. It was fearless batting from the 26-year-old, who hit Boult and Milne for a maximum in their respective opening overs. His half-century is the second-fastest by an uncapped player this season.
Mumbai 155/6 in 20 overs (Q de Kock 55, R Sharma 33; L Ferguson 2/27, P Krishna 2/43)
Kolkata 159/3 in 15.1 overs (R Tripathi 74*, V Iyer 53; J Bumrah 3/43)
Parameswaran Sankaranarayanan
Parameswaran Sankaranarayan is a sports enthusiast who has worked in print, website, and other digital platforms. He was part of the editorial team of first-ever Indian football-based website - IndianFootball.com (now defunct) - and passionately follows the latest happenings in world football. During his time as a journalist, he had the opportunity to interact with some of the iconic personalities in Indian sports and witness some memorable moments in Indian football.
Read All Articles >
