IPL 2018: Match 37, MI vs KKR - Who Said What

Mumbai Indians (MI) has once again managed to prevail in the close finish and keep themselves alive in the tournament by beating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The visitors fell short of the target by 13 runs even as they looked like gunning it down after first 10 overs courtesy Robin Uthappa. He scored a valiant half-century by smashing Mayank Markande out of the park several times. However, it was the bowling attack which kept its nerves, in the end, to pull off a sensational victory.

KKR changed the opening combination surprisingly and sent Shubman Gill along with Chris Lynn to open the innings. But it didn’t work as they lost both of them within 4 overs and then Nitish Rana took the onus on himself along with Uthappa. They stitched a partnership of 84 runs and gave their team the advantage going into the last 8 overs. But both were sent back off the consecutive overs and then the game turned on its heads. Dinesh Karthik tried his best but eventually lost the game.

Earlier on the day they won the toss and invited the hosts to bat first. The openers again provided them with a good start as Suryakumar Yadav scored his fourth half-century of the season. Even Evin Lewis smashed 43 runs as they added 91 runs for the opening wicket. But once they fell, again Mumbai lost steam and kept losing wickets at the regular intervals. Though Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya made a decent effort and propelled the team’s score to 181 runs after 20 overs which were enough in the end.

Man of the Match, Hardik Pandya said:

Quite happy to have the Purple Cap. More than that I am happy that the team won and that was my plan. I have been bowling for the Indian team in all games and that gives confidence. In the last one year I have learnt a lot of things while bowling for India. I always want to keep improving.

In T20 you might go for runs but you can always come back and today I did that. Today when Rohit got out JP was going in next but Mahela stopped him and said Hardik you have to go. I love to bat up the order, happy that I got the chance.

Mumbai Indians captain, Rohit Sharma said:

This victory was much needed for us to stay in the competition, it was a great effort from the bowling unit. It was always going to be tough for us with the way they batted in the first 10 overs. We kept taking wickets which was a crucial part.

I thought it was a good pitch from the last time we played here, it played nicely. We knew it will play a little slower because of the heat here. We adjusted well but we still have to do some work with the bat to finish off the games, considering the start we got.

We should have got 15-20 runs more, some work needs to be done there. We are not short of power hitting, with so much ability with the bat at times it becomes difficult to utilize them. We have got three power hitters in the team, Ben is a great striker of the ball but he hasn’t got enough time to bat in the middle.

I know at sometime in the tournament he will play a crucial role. At Wankhede, you can’t keep bowling the same length, you don’t want to be predictable here. So, with the field we set we never allow the batsmen to think what we are going to bowl.

Under the lights pitch gets better so idea was to keep the batsmen guessing. I think Krunal is a very smart cricketer and that is the reason i went with him in the last over.