The Mumbai Indians successfully defended a target of 152 against the Kolkata Knight Riders to secure their first victory of the season by 10 runs.

Chasing 152, the Knight Riders were going great guns at 72-0 as Gill and the in-form Nitish Rana were looking at ease against the pacers. The latter brought up his second consecutive fifty in the second match of the season as he sighted another win for his franchise.

The problem for KKR began when Rahul Chahar was introduced into the attack. He looked threatening, especially against the left-handers as he contributed a wicket in every over that he bowled to end up with a career best performance of 4/27.

Even Rohit Sharma decided to roll his arm over after looking at the pitch that was aiding the spinners.

Krunal Pandya, the other spinner in their team, bowled economically well as he gave a miser 13 runs away in his four overs and picked up a wicket along with bowling a crucial 17th over against Karthik and Russell.

Finally the death-over specialists, Bumrah and Boult, showed why they are so tough to face in the final overs of an innings. Bumrah bowled the penultimate over and gave away just 4 runs. He planned accordingly for both batsmen as he bowled wide outside the off-stump to Karthik and slower ones mixed up with a few yorkers to Russell.

Bumrah set the victory up but Boult, who was responsible for the final over gave away a meagre 4 runs to end the game in the defending champion’s favour.

The wicket was already offering a slow pace therefore Boult and Bumrah made use of the slowness of the track and seldom bowled deliveries that were full or boosted with pace.

Image courtesy : IPL/ Twitter

In the first innings of the game, Russell cleaned up the MI lower order to deserve a fifer while the other bowlers were also tidy with their figures.

Surya Kumar (56 off 36) was the only player for MI to get going as he played the spinners with great intent during the power play.

Brief Scores : MI 152 All out in 20 overs,

Suryakumar 56 (36) ; Russell 2-0-15-5.

KKR ( Lost by 10 runs ) 142-7 in 20 overs,

Rana 57 (47) ; R Chahar 4-0-27-4.

Man-of-the-match : Rahul Chahar.

Do share your views @shortlegcricketblog on Instagram and @kanzzpp on Twitter!