Mumbai Indians ensured a top of the table finish in the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) league stage after beating Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Skipper Rohit Sharma led from the front with an unbeaten 55, while Lasith Malinga completed his four overs with figures of 3 for 35.

With a modest target of 134 to chase down, our openers Rohit and Quinton de Kock began in somewhat circumspect fashion before going on the offence in the fourth over. They put on a 46-run opening stand with the latter playing the role of the aggressor. The South African wicket-keeper though, perished right after the powerplay and was replaced by Suryakumar Yadav at the crease.

Both Rohit and Suryakumar looked comfortable in the middle as KKR’s bowlers toiled for another breakthrough. Rohit brought up his fifty in the 15th over and played some magnificent strokes along the way. Suryakumar, meanwhile, scored 46 from 27 balls and wrapped up the chase with a six in the 17th over as MI finished the league stage of IPL 2019 at the summit of the points table.  

Earlier in the evening, KKR’s openers Shubman Gill and Chris Lynn gave the visitors a decent start. Lynn was lucky to survive an LBW appeal, but Gill wasn’t. He perished in the 7th over with the score on 49 after a well-disguised slower ball from Hardik trapped the youngster in front of the stumps. Hardik then dismissed Lynn in his next over, but not before the Australian had made 41 from 29 balls.

Our bowlers went on to establish control of the game soon after and kept things tight in the middle overs as Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik struggled to get going. Karthik was eventually dismissed in the 13th over thanks to a superb catch by Krunal Pandya off Malinga’s bowling. The same over saw Malinga get rid of the dangerman Andre Russell for a duck.

New batsman Nitish Rana made a quickfire 26 from 13 deliveries, but a Malinga slower ball deceived him as well. KKR tried to accelerate towards the end of the innings, however, some wonderful bowling by our bowlers contained them brilliantly. The final over of the innings saw Jasprit Bumrah pick up wickets of both Uthappa and Rinku Singh as Kolkata finished on 133 for 7.  

Brief score: Kolkata Knight Riders 133 for 7 in 20 overs (Lynn 41; Malinga 3/35) lost to Mumbai Indians 134 for 1 in 16.1 overs (Rohit 55*; Prasidh Krishna 1/22) by 9 wickets

Man of the Match: Hardik Pandya

Our next match will be the Qualifier 1 clash against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk on Tuesday.