IPL Matchday 5 : Hitman, Boom set the record straight for MI

ABU DHABI : The Mumbai Indians secured their first win in seven attempts in the UAE against the Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs.

TOSS : KKR won the toss and Karthik decided to field first considering the due factor which played a part in the previous game here.

After De Kock’s early dismissal, the duo of Surya and Rohit, who scored most of the runs for MI set the stage for a big total. The former looked in great touch right from the start while Rohit gave himself a few balls to settle and took off as soon as he sighted the short ball by Cummins clearing the boundary twice.

Trivia : 1 out of 5 of Rohit’s hooks/pulls is a six. Only Gayle, Lewis and Russel are more effective with those shots. (Min 200 plus hooks/pulls)

Surya was run out for 47 and Tiwary, the new batsman added 21 (13) before his dismissal to Narine. KKR were pulling things back but Rohit continued to dominate against spin and also crossed 200 IPL sixes as he continued to bat. Hardik came in with 29 balls remaining in the innings. A dangerous batsman in the final overs but KKR were lucky he didn’t last longer because he was out hit wicket.

Rohit was out for 80 (53). Hitting 6 sixes and 3 boundaries in his innings which powered MI to 195-5. Despite not adding a great number of runs at the back they reached a huge target.

Narine and Gill began proceedings for KKR. But with Boult and Pattinson at the other end it was always going to be challenging. The quick bowlers got the wickets of both the openers and gave away just 33 runs in the first six.

Karthik came out at number 3. He is familiar to that position where he previously batted for RCB back in 2015, scoring 715 runs in 26 innings. Along with Rana, he built a promising partnership but was out LBW to Chahar while playing a slog sweep.

Morgan and Russel did not look as dangerous as their reputation. They could not connect the ball as easily as they are known to do and were out soon. Bumrah, who bowled economically for his first three overs outsmarted Russel with a slower one and then sent the left-hander back.

Trivia : Runs conceded by Bumrah

First 3 overs : 5 runs

His last over : 27 runs

Cummins striked a few meaty blows in Bumrah’s last over but they were too far in the match by then. They eventually lost by 49 runs.

MI have now won 20 matches in 26 games against KKR making it the most one-sided encounter in the IPL. This game was also Pollard’s 150th cap in Mumbai colours.

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Stats Courtesy @cricvizanalyst