KKR vs MI, IPL 2021: Rahul Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav shines as Mumbai Indians defeat KKR by 10 runs

The five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians registered a fabulous come-back victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Kolkata Knight Riders failed to score 30 runs off 31 balls thereby losing the game by 10 runs.

Image By: IPLT20

Match: 5th Match, KKR vs MI.

Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and opted to field.

MI Score: 152/10 in 20 overs.

KKR Score: 142/7 in 20 overs.

Result: Mumbai Indians won by 10 runs.

Player of the Match: Rahul Chahar for taking 4 wickets.

Invited to bat first, Mumbai Indians gave a target of 153 runs to Kolkata Knight Riders. Mumbai Indians made one change in the playing 11 as Quinton de Kock replaced Chris Lynn for opening the innings for the team. MI scored 42 runs in the powerplay with the efforts of Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav. Suryakumar Yadav started aggressively hitting 3 fours in the third over off Harbhajan Singh. While Rohit Sharma was silent, Suryakumar Yadav kept on scoring runs at a great pace. Suryakumar Yadav added 56 runs off 36 balls hitting 7 fours and 2 sixes with a strike rate of 155.56. Rohit Sharma scored 43 runs off 32 balls. No Batsman other than Rohit and Suryakumar reached the 20-run mark as Andre Russell of KKR took 5 wickets in a span of just 2 overs demolishing the batting of MI.

Andre Russell bowling just two overs bagged 5 wickets conceding 15 runs in these two overs. Russell took 2 wickets in the 18th over dismissing Kieron Pollard and Marco Jansen. In the 20th over, he completed his 5-wicket haul bagging 3 wickets in this over. This is the best ever bowling figure by a KKR bowler and the best ever against MI. Pat Cummins also took 2 wickets while Prasidh Krishna and Varun Chakravarthy grabbed 1 wicket each.

KKR started off brilliantly as both the openers took calculated risks to score 45 runs in the powerplay. Nitish Rana continuing his great form from the last game did most of the hitting for KKR and scored 57 runs facing 47 deliveries which included 6 fours and 2 sixes. Shubman Gill added 33 runs off 24 balls and KKR were 81/1 in the 10th over. After the departure of Nitish Rana, wickets kept on falling and MI continued mounting pressure on KKR. None of the batsmen other than the openers even reached the two-figure mark. KKR required 15 runs in the last over off Trent Boult but they managed to score just 4 runs thereby losing the game by 10 runs.

Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar bowled a brilliant spell restricting KKR to just 142 runs in a 153-run chase. Rahul Chahar gave 27 runs and took important 4 wickets of the top-order batsmen of KKR including the wickets of Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill. On the other hand, Krunal Pandya bowling with a great economy rate of 3.20 gave just 13 runs in his 4-over spell. Krunal also bagged 1 wicket. Trent Boult took 2 wickets in the last over and took MI home.

Andre Russell's 5/15 is the best bowling figure by any player of KKR and even the best against Mumbai Indians.