Run chase friendly Wankade stadium lived up to its reputation, ” win toss bowl first ”
This is exactly what Hardik Pandya did to insert Kolkota Night riders into bat on a humid day at Mumbai yesterday.
Trent Boult is known for his freakish wicket, taking ability in his very first over with the new ball . He did just that, shuffling the stumps of Sunil Narine in the very first over for nought.
Quinto de Kock can be a one track minded batter targeting the square on side fence if bowlers bowl at his pads or even his stumps. The former South African is a master of this execution. Hence, many fast bowlers have been victims of this special talent by the great left-handed year over the years.
Deepak Chahar, we were told, was to plan out a strategy with his coach Mahela Jayawardena, a tactician with immense experience on how to curtail the Quinton strength and frustrate his mind set.
The tactic adopted paid dividends, and Deepak kept bowling way outside his off stump and had him caught at mid off for just one run , thereby creating pressure in the KKR camp with both openers back in the hutch with the score on 2.
Ajankya Rahane was expected to play the long innings, but he became the first victim of Ashwani Kumar, the debutant seam bowler who ultimately scalped 4 wickets for 24 runs and be adjudicated as man of the match on his dream debut.
Sadly, none of the Kolkota Night riders big guns, including Venketesh Ayer, Rinku Singh, Mahesh Pandy, or Andre Russell, made any significant contribution with the bat as Ashwani Kumar enjoyed his debut scalping not only Ajankya Rahane , but Rinku Singh , Manesh Pandy and Andre Russell all victims of bad shot selection.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi top scored with 26 , but Hardick Pandya, the Mumbai Indian skipper, had him as his bunny in his two overs .
Trent Boult 1 for 23 , Hardick Pandya 1 for 10 , Vignesh Puthur 1 for 21, and Mitchell Santner 1 for 17 made batting look difficult for the opposition .
Kolkota Night riders bowled out for 116 runs in 16.2 overs the headlines during the mid break media flash from the Wankade Press box.
117 , as a target, gave Mumbai Indians who were languishing in the bottom of the points table to tick many boxes.
1) Get points on the table.
2) Win comprehensively, With a healthy run rate .
3) climb up the points table With a + run rate as Opposed to the minus RR they were currently Facing due two loses on the trott.
They ticked all three boxes.
Mumbai Indians won by 8 wickets in 12.5 overs with 47 balls to spare , climbing to 6th position in the points table, whilst securing a + 3.09 net run rate.
Rickleton made 62 off 41 deliveries with 4 boundaries and 5 big sixes.
The opener could not get bat to ball in the first four balls he faced , his first run, a boundary off an outside edge , and the next a six off a top edge.
The South African then realised he had plenty of balls left to get to the below par target of 117, then settled, and the rest was a walk in the park.
We were told when our star of the day Ashwani Kumar was informed by coach Mahela Jayawardena that he is playing his debut game for Mumbai Indians, the 23 year old with excitement did not have his lunch. Guess the youngster might make this a habit on match days in the future because players are superstitious.