Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 runs, stay at the top of the table

Chasing the target of 174, KKR played with a high run rate but the continuous loss of wickets and the lack of any major partnership restricted the host team from crossing the mark.

Most of the batsmen of KKR got their start but unable to convert those in big innings and stay till the last over.

KKR batsmen were going at certain stage of the match with 10 runs per over with the fearless batting of Chris Lynn (21) and Yusuf Pathan (20) and Colin de Grandhomme (29) but could only score 164/8 in 20 overs.

Tim Southee, Vinay Kumar and Hardik Pandya took two wickets each for MI.

Earlier, a flamboyant knock of 63 of 36 deliveries  by Ambati Rayadu  and his 61 run partnership with Saurav Tiwari (52 off 43 balls) guided Mumbai Indians to score 172 runs for the loss of five wickets in their innings against  Kolkata Knight Riders in their last league match at Eden Gardens here Saturday night.

Coming to bat after the fall of 2nd wicket , Rayadu  played a steller knock to keep Mumbai’s hope for a top finish in the round robin league  and hit all around the wickets punishing both the KKR spinners and  paceman alike.

Rayadu, who came to bat with their total reading 69, was finally out as he failed to read correctly a Kuldip Yadav delivery and was stumped by Uthappa at their team total of 168.

He delighted the packed Eden stadium with six fours and three over bounderies.

None of the KKR bowlers  could  impress much  , mediumpacer T A Boult who opened home side’s attack bagged a couple of wickets concedinbg 30 runs off  four overs.

After this loss, KKR remains at the third place in IPL standings and would play against the winner of the match between Rising Pune Supergiant and Kings XI Punjab that would take place on Sunday.

Mumbai Indians will play Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first qualifier of the play-offs.

Keywords: MumbaiIndians, KolkataKnughtRiders, play-off, IndianPremierLeague.

Image: IPL Twitter page