IPL 10: Qualifier 2, Who Said What: Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders

Table toppers Mumbai Indians faced a jubilant Kolkata Knight Riders in Qualifier 2 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, in a virtual semi-final face-off to book their spot at the IPL Finals. As it turned out, Mumbai Indians were too hot to handle for the Kolkata Knight Riders as they won the match by 6 wickets with almost 6 overs to spare.

Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first, keeping an eye on the dodgy Bangalore weather. KKR shocked one and all with their batting as they lost half their side for just 34 on the board and ended up with 107 runs on the board by losing rest of their wickets. Thanks to Suryakumar Yadav and Ishank Jaggi Kolkata Knight Riders ended up with a respectable total of 107 on the board.

Jasprit Bumrah and Karn Sharma were exceptional with the ball as they managed to clinch 3 and 4 wickets respectively. Chasing a low total, Parthiv Patel and Rohit threatened to finish off the match early before they were dismissed. In the end, Krunal Pandya finished the innings off in style with his unbeaten 45. Karn Sharma was adjudged as the Man of the Match for his figures of 4/16 at an economy of four per over.

Karn Sharma

There was no one prouder than Karn after he won the MoM title for his brilliant performance tonight. However, when asked about the fact that his good performance is keeping legends like Harbhajan Singh out of the side, Karn politely stated that he is focussed on doing well for the team which is of utmost importance

I’ve worked very hard, and I’m really happy that it’s paying off. In limited overs, my role is to take wickets so I try to bowl slower. It was an important game, so my mindset was to take wickets and get them all out. The good thing is I’m helping the team win, which is the most important thing.

Rohit Sharma 

An ecstatic Mumbai Indians skipper credited the teamwork of the side for their success tonight. He emphasised on the fact that each and every individual in the team has undertaken the additional responsibility to take their team home.

That’s been the hallmark of this team – we’ve not depended on one individual. It’s all about teamwork and we’ve been doing that regularly. Good to see when individuals take responsibility. It’s good for the captain, not too much of headache. It’s something we’ve been talking about (Bumrah with the new ball). We all know Bumrah is a wicket-taking bowler. KKR have a top-heavy batting, so we wanted to get them out early. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It looks bad when it doesn’t work. It’s not about me, I just go and execute what I’ve been told.

Rohit was wary of the fact that they don’t hold a pleasant record in the tournament against their neighbours Rising Pune Supergiant. He stated that the key to doing well in Hyderabad would be to assess the conditions well beforehand and adapt accordingly.

We don’t have a good history with that team (RPS). We have to focus on what we need to do as a team. Hyderabad is a different venue so we need to assess conditions quickly. It’s all about getting used to those conditions. So far we’ve been doing really well as a team, just one more hurdle

Gautam Gambhir

KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir accepted that the loss of early wickets hurt them the most. GG lauded the efforts of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishank Jaggi who salvaged some pride out of the innings. He stated that his team was 30-40 runs short of the required target.

We discussed after the last game as well this is not a 160-170 wicket. This is a wicket where you could get 130-140. Obviously, we lost too many wickets upfront. Once you lose 5 wickets for 31. It is very difficult to come back. Jaggi and Surya got us to 107. That was still a decent effort. But 107 was never enough to get the opposition all-out. Had we got 140 odd, we could have been in the game.

After stating all the facts, the leader of KKR said that he was proud of his boys and their efforts which made it possible for them to take up the third spot in the tournament.

We all know they are a quality side and we had to be up for it. If you lose 5 wickets in the first 6-7 overs, you never recover. We kept losing wickets and could never target any particular bowler. We thought 130-140 would have given us something to make a game out it. Proud of the boys. we put everything we could. We did not take any short cuts. Mumbai was a better side today.

Gauti went ahead and commented that the better side between the two won the game. In the hindsight, the skipper hinted that the team had a quite a few chances to end up on top in the league stages. He signed off the tournament by wishing the two teams in the finals good luck to clinch the trophy.

But if you look back at things we could have finished in the top two. We had two opportunities. Once against Kings XI, we messed it and then again against Mumbai Indians. We made that kind of mistakes and a bad game like today haunted us bad. Just wish both Mumbai and Pune, may the best team win.

After 57 enthralling matches in the tournament, it all boils down to the finals and only two are left out of the eight as they compete for the silverware on Sunday.