On a high-scoring, field-first ground, and fighting considerable dew, Kolkata Knight Riders nearly won with an under-par 176 but failed to defend 59 in the last 23 balls. In the cauldron, with the home crowd burning their ears and a wet ground underfoot, the visiting Knight Riders just froze in the field after taking out almost all the big guns from Mumbai Indians.

Almost. Because at 119 for 5, Mumbai sent out Hardik Pandya, whose cameo met Nitish Rana’s hitherto solid innings to stage a heist.

Rana went from 29 off 23 to 50 off 28, and Hardik hit the winning runs in his 11-ball 29. The night belonged to the brothers after Krunal Pandya dragged Knight Riders back with his left-arm spin of 4-0-24-3. Two of these wickets read c Pandya b Pandya.

Chris Lynn came into this match on the back of an explosive 93, but he goes at only 6.16 against left-arm spin. It was expected, then, that Krunal would bowl early in the innings. Knight Riders had already run away to 44 in four by the time he came on, and Lynn was not on strike first ball.

Doesn’t matter because Krunal took two bonus wickets of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa in that over.

The other thing about Lynn was his wagon wheel in his 93. He scored 52 of those runs in 17 hits to leg, and not one behind square. So Mumbai bowled to him with a long-on and a cow corner, short and into the body, denying him the swing of the arms.

The quicks even bowled two wides to him down the leg side. In the end, against Jasprit Bumrah, Lynn went to hit square, to miss that man at cow corner, and moved too far across to be lbw with Knight Riders at 67 for 3 in the eighth over, with a middle-overs slowdown to follow.

Manish Pandey, who before this match had scored 53 off 53 Harbhajan Singh deliveries, was part of that slowdown when Harbhajan and Krunal turned the screws. Pandey, though, can shift gears dramatically.

His overall strike rate in IPL is 111 over the first 30 balls of an innings, and 173 off the next 30.

Here he went from 35 off 30 to 81 off 47, taking Mitchell McClenaghan apart in a 23-run final over.