Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians by 34 runs at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Andre Russell scored an unbeaten 80 and took two wickets for the hosts, while Hardik Pandya was our best performer with figures of 1 for 31 and a blistering 34-ball 91.

Chasing 233 to win, MI didn’t get off to the best of starts as Quinton de Kock perished in the second over after top-edging a ball from Sunil Narine. Skipper Rohit Sharma was dismissed two overs later after being trapped in front of his stumps by Harry Gurney.

With both openers now back in the hut, Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav were the two new batsmen at the crease. Unfortunately, both of them couldn’t strike a partnership together as Lewis edged a delivery from Russell through to the wicket-keeper. Russell then dismissed Suryakumar to reduce MI to 58 for 4 and put KKR in a position of strength.

Just when it looked like we were out of the game, Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya opted to take the attack to KKR’s bowlers and did so successfully. Hardik in particular, took Kolkata’s spinners to task by consistently depositing them into the crowd.

Hardik in fact, was scoring his runs at a frightening pace and brought up his fifty in just 17 balls for the fastest fifty in IPL 2019. Pollard, however, wasn’t timing the ball as well as Hardik and had to return to the dugout in the 14th over having miscued a ball from Narine.

Krunal Pandya joined Hardik at the crease and played a good supporting hand. Hardik, meanwhile, continued to dominate the bowlers and was particularly severe on Piyush Chawla. Eventually it was Gurney who got Hardik’s wicket, but not before the swashbuckling all-rounder had entertained the fans to a magnificent 91 from just 34 balls. With Hardik no longer at the crease, KKR closed out the match comfortably as Chawla picked up Krunal’s wicket in the final over of the game.

Earlier in the evening, KKR’s openers Shubman Gill and Chris Lynn gave the hosts a solid start. They benefitted from Lynn being dropped in the sixth over and the Australian capitalized with a belligerent 29-ball 54. Rahul Chahar eventually got us the breakthrough in the 10th over, but Kolkata already had 96 on the board at this stage.

Lynn’s dismissal didn’t seem to slow KKR down too much either as Gill and Russell, who walked out to bat at three and four took charge. The duo put on a 62-run stand together before Gill mistimed a delivery from Hardik in the 16th over and fell after making 76.

In the last four overs, our bowlers found it difficult to contain KKR as both Russell and Dinesh Karthik began throwing their bats at everything. Russell and Karthik ensured Kolkata scored 68 runs from the final four overs to set up a match-winning target of 233. 

Brief score: Kolkata Knight Riders 232 for 2 in 20 overs (Russell 80*; Hardik 1/31) beat Mumbai Indians 198 for 7 in 20 overs (Hardik 91; Russell 2/25) by 34 runs

Man of the Match: Andre Russell

Our next match will be against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede on Thursday.