(ESPNCRICINFO) – Kolkata Knight Riders kept alive their hopes of an unlikely playoff spot with their sixth win in their last seven games after having stayed winless in the first six. Their tall seamers Cameron Green and Saurabh Dubey took out two Mumbai Indians batters each in the powerplay before their spin twins turned the screw in on a pitch with both seam movement and turn.
Chasing 148, KKR lost three wickets early, but a couple of 40s from Manish Pandey and Rovman Powell were enough to break the back of the chase. KKR still needed to win their last match against Delhi Capitals and hope two other results go their way, but the win kept their dream alive for at least one more night.
Green, Dubey rock MI
KKR have been the second-stingiest side of the tournament, but they haven’t been especially quick with their wicket-taking. Not even once had they taken more than two wickets in the powerplay coming into this match. Then they won the toss on a pitch that had stayed under covers because of rains and chose to unleash their tall quicks, but not before the almost customary first over from left-arm spinner Anukul Roy.
Immediately both drew some seam movement and some extra bounce. Stifled after first two overs went for just 10, both Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma tried big hits. Rohit launched one into the stands, but Rickelton skied one for Pandey to take his second excellent catch of the season at backward point, this time controlling the swirling ball. Green then went past the outside edge of Naman Dhir two balls in a row before kissing the edge with an outswinger to send him back for a three-ball duck.
Green was in action in the next over, running back and to his right for 33 metres to take over his shoulder a skier from Rohit. The ball was full enough, but there were some seam and some extra bounce to take the big edge. Suryakumar Yadav made perhaps his best start of this IPL, but then Dubey went round the wicket to cramp him up with some seam movement back in and had him playing on for 15 off six balls.
Spinners take charge
On either side of a one-hour rain break, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya combined for the worst strike rate for Nos 5 and 6 in an IPL innings when both played at least 20 balls. It wasn’t for want of trying. Sunil Narine and a hobbling Varun Chakravarthy were just too good on a surface with turn available for them. Varun nearly got Tilak caught and bowled but was put off by the wicketkeeper Angkrish Raghuvanshi charging towards him. The catch went down, and Raghuvanshi ended up with a concussion.
However, it didn’t hurt KKR too much as Kartik Tyagi had Tilak caught on the pull despite only a 59-metre boundary to clear. Narine was not to be denied for long as he zipped through Hardik to get him out for the first time in T20 cricket, bowled middle stump.
Will Jacks ran himself out trying to steal a second having hit straight to Rinku Singh at deep cover, but Corbin Bosch’s 32 off 18 took MI to 147.