Rohit Sharma's Mumbai Indians crush Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in Qualifier-2 to storm into IPL-10 final
Mumbai Indians' leg-spinner Karn Sharma (third from left) celebrates the wicket of Kolkata Knight Riders batsman Colin de Grandhomme with teammates during the IPL-10 Qualifier-2 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore yesterday. Sharma took 4-16 in four overs
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Given a second chance to make the final in the 10th edition of the IPL, Mumbai Indians seized it with both hands to set up a revenge game against the Rising Pune Supergiant in Hyderabad on Sunday.
A fantastic show from their bowlers, led by leg-spinner Karn Sharma, was what set up Qualifier-2 for Mumbai and ensured their passage to the title clash.
Given a chance to bowl first after Rohit Sharma won a crucial toss, MI bowled out Kolkata Knight Riders for a poor 107 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and then knocked off the required runs with 33 balls and six wickets to spare.
Kolkata Knights Riders captain Gautam Gambhir steals a run
It was not all smooth sailing with the bat but with their batting depth it was always a question of when the win would come and not if. The calming influence of skipper Rohit Sharma (26 off 24 balls) and his 54-run fourth wicket association with the consistent Krunal Pandya (45 not out, 30b, 8x4) finally sealed it for Mumbai last night.
KKR's own leggie, Piyush Chawla, picked up two early wickets to trigger a minor collapse during the Mumbai chase but his batsmen had done too little earlier. Yes, this season the pitches at this venue have been difficult to score on but certainly not as tough as has been made out by batsmen who have shown a great reluctance to adapt. The RCB fever seemed to have struck SRH the other night and last night it was KKR's turn.
Bollywood super star and Kolkata Knight Riders team owner, Shah Rukh Khan waves to fans during the IPL-10 Qualifier-2 between KKR and Mumbai Indians in Bangalore yesterday. Pics/AFP
How else do you explain a score of 43 for 5 at the end of the first 10 overs? Karn Sharma, even in his wildest imagination, would not have dreamt of ending with figures of 4-0-16-4 even had the pitch been a minefield, which it wasn't by any yardstick. The leggie gobbled up Sunil Narine, Gambhir and Colin de Grandhomme in that order in an opening spell of 3-0-11-3 before returning in the 15th over to get rid of Jaggi (28, 31b, 3x4).
The choke on KKR was put very early, thanks to two searing opening overs sent down by Mitchell Johnson, playing in place of an injured Mitchell McClenhagan, and Jasprit Bumrah, the latter bagging the wicket of Chris Lynn too in the bargain.
Karn then took over and despite some useful blows by Surya Kumar (31, 25b, 2x4, 1x6) and Jaggi, KKR finished with next to nothing.
Eventually it was about Mumbai Indians having the wood over KKR, this being their third straight win this season.
498 No. of runs Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper Gautam Gambhir ended IPL-10 with yesterday. He averaged 41.50 in 16 games
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