The ball seemed to dig in a bit before coming on to the batsman but Mumbai took the bull by the horns and wrestled themselves into a terrific position and the second half of the match turned out to be anti-climatic
Mumbai' captain Rohit Sharma celebrates with his teammates, the dismissal of Kolkata' Andre Russell during an T20 2018 cricket match at Eden Garden in Kolkata on Wednesday. Pic/PTI
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A masterful and brave performance in a crunch game is what Mumbai delivered on Wednesday night in front of a packed Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The ball seemed to dig in a bit before coming on to the batsman but Mumbai took the bull by the horns and wrestled themselves into a terrific position and the second half of the match turned out to be anti-climatic.
Man of the hour
The man of the hour was young Ishan Kishan. He has shown glimpses of why MI believed firmly that he was a Top 4 batsman at the young age of 19. Temperament supersedes talent is what the greats say and it manifested itself on Wednesday night. Ishan displayed the temperament to back his own game plan, which was essentially to score big off every ball and it came off at the most crucial juncture for Mumbai. His hitting was simply fabulous, and he bullied Kuldeep Yadav after the chinaman bowler had started really well, nearly bowling Ishan.
Big Ben comes to the party
Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma looked good once again and it was Ben Cutting who gave them that great crescendo at the end for MI to finish on a high. When you are defending a score of 210, you have to stick to the basics with the ball and field brilliantly which is what Mumbai did. Kolkata had a mountain to climb and in the end it was a one-sided affair.
They lost Sunil Narine early which was their one big chance to make a fist of it. Andre Russell was rightly promoted, but fell after scoring two, leaving Dinesh Karthik with too much to do.
Jatin Paranjape, the former international and national selector, tweets @jats72
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