IPL 2024: 12-Year Wait Ends: Kolkata Knight Riders Secure Victory Over Mumbai Indians at Wankhede

The homecoming was not as expected for Mumbai Indians as they suffered their second defeat in the 2024 IPL season. Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by 24 runs, the first victory for the men on the purple pitch after 12 years. The last time KKR beat Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede was in 2012. For a brief moment today, when SKY was batting, it looked like the numbers would hold. But the out-of-form Mitchell Starc decided to show his class in the final over of the match. After hitting a six off the first ball, he took three wickets in the same over to wrap up the MI innings. With just three wins in eleven games, Mumbai Indians may well wave goodbye to their playoff ambitions. While Kolkata have taken a step closer to sealing their playoff spot.

Venkatesh Iyer played a decisive innings of 70 runs to put his team on the board with a total of 169 runs in the first innings. His innings was decorated with 6 fours and 3 sixes. Mumbai had a tough start to the innings with the early dismissal of Ishan Kishan in the second over of the innings. Mitchell Starc, who has been in poor form throughout the IPL, was hit for two consecutive boundaries (a four and a six) before being cleaned out with a fuller on the next ball. Naman Dhir and Rohit Sharma soon followed Ishaan into the dugout. Varun Chakraborty dismissed Naman in the fifth over of the innings. While Rohit tried to slog an over to mid-wicket in Sunil Narine’s first over but could not time the ball well. Mumbai lost three important wickets in the powerplay.

Tilak Verma and Suryakumar Yadav started building a partnership but that too could not last more than 15 runs off 17 balls. Tilak tried to cut Narine’s delivery but sent the ball straight into the hands of Varun Chakraborty at third man. Even skipper Hardik Pandya could not use a good stage for him to showcase his batting skills. Russell found an edge to Pandya and the ball flew high in the air as Manish Pandey settled under it for a comfortable catch. KKR was in the driver’s seat but then came the Suryakumar Yadav show. SKY, who were playing cautiously until the 13th over, decided to break the deadlock and perform a boundary. He scored 20 off Vaibhav Arora’s third over and swung the momentum towards the home team. Russell was brought back to bowl the 16th over and did not let his captain down. He took the important wicket of Suryakumar Yadav (56). SKY tried to lift the ball off his pads and hit it to the square leg boundary but the ball found the top edge of his bat. Wicket-keeper Phil Salt ran from his position towards the boundary line and took a brilliant catch.

With Tim David and Gerald Coetzee out in the middle, the equation required 32 runs from the last two overs. Tim hit Starc for a six off the first ball but gave away his wicket on the second ball. The Australian all-rounder attempted a full toss at long off but could not time it right. The next batter, Piyush Chawla, followed Tim on the very next ball.

Starc wrapped up the Mumbai Indians in his over, dismissing Coetzee with a brilliant yorker for which he is known.
Earlier, Mumbai got off to a great start after winning the toss and electing to field. He was able to break KKR’s crucial opening partnership by dismissing Phil Salt in the second over. Tilak took a brilliant catch running backwards and collided with Akash Madhwal in the process. More wickets soon fell as Angkrish Raghuvanshi gave an easy catch to Suryakumar Yadav. In-form Sunil Narine and skipper Shreyas Iyer led the way as KKR reached 43/4 in just 4.2 overs.

The onus then fell on two power hitters Rinku Singh and Venkatesh Iyer. Rinku has recently become the talk of the town as he was left out of India’s T20 World Cup squad. The stage was perfectly set for him to put on a show but he couldn’t capitalize on it. Rinku tries to slot the ball into the gap and look for a single but the ball goes straight to Piyush Sharma who takes a brilliant catch on his follow through. With Rinku’s dismissal, the panic button was pressed and KKR decided not to wait and send their dominant player in the first innings itself. Manish Pandey came to bat in place of Raghuvanshi in the XI. Manish and Venkatesh registered a long partnership of 83 runs in 62 balls. All the while, KKR’s best power-hitter Andre Russell sat in the dugout. After the dismissal of Manish Pandey in the 17th over itself, Russell got a chance to come out and bat.