IPL24: KKR marches into playoffs , beats MI twice in same season , Varun shines

 

Mumbai Indians  'washed away' on a rainy day, KKR confirmed the playoffs in Eden. Knights reached the last four as the first team.  Batting first, KKR scored 157 runs for 7 wickets in the rain interrupted match of 16 overs each .  In reply, Hardik Pandya's team ended up with 139 runs for 8 wickets.  As a result, Kolkata won at home by 18 runs.  KKR's most successful bowler Varun Chakraborty took 2 wickets for 17 runs.  He was accompanied by Russell (34/2) Harshit Rana (34/2) and Sunil Narine (21/1).

 Kolkata vs Mumbai match reduced from 20 overs to 16 overs due to rain.  The toss took place at 9 pm much after the scheduled time, the game started at 9.15 pm.  The maximum number of overs by the bowlers also decreased.  In this match, one bowler from each team is allowed to bowl four overs.

 After winning the toss in the away match, Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya gave that opportunity to the team's main bowler Jasprit Bumrah.  He performed the duty.  Picked up 2 wickets for 39 runs in four overs.  Another experienced Mumbai bowler did not allow Kolkata to score big.  He is Piyush Chawla (3-28-2) Chawla.  However, one of the reasons why Kolkata scored 150 runs was Venkatesh Iyer's bat (42).  Venkatesh took the lead after the two openers returned to the pavilion cheaply for just 10 runs in the second over of the game. Salt was dismissed by Thushara in 1st over after hitting a 6 first ball and then Narine left one angling delivery of Bumrah to be bowled .   Later, Nitish (33) stood by the side of the team in times of need playing his first game after injury recovery and he supported Venkatesh Iyer well , who played a priceless innings of 42 off just 21 balls ,  studded with several glorious shots . Russell (24), Rinku (20) and Ramandeep Singh (17) contributed towards the end.  In the end, with the concern of rain, Kolkata scored 157 runs on the scoreboard by losing 7 wickets. For MI  Bumrah & Chawla took 2 wickets each .

Mumbai's openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan got off to a good start when they came down to bat for a target of 158 runs.  On this day, Ishan, who was in rhythm, scored a sparkling 40 runs off 22 balls.  However, Rohit departed after 19 runs off 24 balls as he fell to the guiles of Varun Chakravarty.  Suryakumar Yadav struggled for 11 off 14 balls before getting out to Russell , Team David returned  for zero.  Hardik Pandya failed to play captains innings as needed by the team. He got out for 2 off 4 balls.  Tilak Verma struggled a bit to handle the controlled bowling of Sunil Narine, Russell, Varun Chakraborty.  He scored 32 runs off 17 balls.  Naman Dhir also tried at the end.  He continued to play and scored 17 with 6 balls.  However, after losing 8 wickets in 16 overs, Mumbai's innings ended at 139 runs.  As a result, Shreyas Iyer's KKR confirmed the playoffs by winning on Saturday. Varun Chakravarty was the player of the match .