Kolkata Knight Riders ended their 12-year winless streak at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with a clinical 24-run victory over the home team Mumbai Indians on Friday. Chasing KKR's total of 169, MI struggled from the start and kept losing wickets at regular intervals to be restricted to 145-all out.
Andre Russell delivered the crucial blows for KKR, removing well-set Suryakumar Yadav and MI captain Hardik Pandya in the same over to break any hopes of a fightback. Earlier, MI pacer Nuwan Thushara had picked up three wickets in the powerplay to dent KKR's progress, but important contributions from Venkatesh Iyer (50) and Manish Pandey helped them post a competitive total.
The lack of partnership hurt MI the most as they kept losing wickets and could not build any meaningful stands. Star Indian batsmen Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya also failed to deliver with the bat, departing for low scores. MI's struggles continued as they failed to seizethe initiative when put into bat first. Mitch Starc was the pick of the KKR bowlers with figures of 4/33 while Andre Russell chipped in with two scalps.
With this win, KKR have strengthened their position in the top half of the table. However, MI's horrendous season continues and they face an uphill task to qualify for the playoffs. Both the Indian stars will hope for better returns with the bat in the impending matches ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year.
