Abu Dhabi: Blistering knocks from Venkatesh Iyer(53) and Rahul Tripathi(74) powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a 7-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
The defending champions posted a fighting total of 159 before KKR batters crushed the opposing bowlers getting to the target in the 16th over climbing fourth in the table. Eoin Morgan’s decision to bowl first looked to have backfired after Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock added 78 for the opening stand inside 10 overs setting their side on course for a big total.
However, after the departure of the skipper, Mumbai’s innings started to go downhill.
Despite de Kock’s courageous half-century, the tempo at which they went to play started to subside. Runs drastically dried up largely due to the effort by the KKR spinning duo – Sunil Narine(1/20) and Varun Chakravarthy slamming the door in those middle overs while Seamer Lockie Ferguson(2/27) was the pick of the bowlers. Mumbai never seemed to recover from their early setback although Kieron Pollard added quickfire 21 to help them finish at 155/6.
In reply, Kolkata despite losing Subhman Gill upfront were going berserk as Iyer and Tripathi clobbering everyone out of the park. The former was more of the aggressor in the chase bringing up the first IPL fifty in just his second game off just 25 balls. He got dismissed going for a big shot off Jasprit Bumrah however, it bothered very little to his side as the Knight Riders had already come close to the target. Nitish Rana reverse-swept hard over backward-point completing a total demolition as KKR registered their second win on the trot in phase two.
Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 159/3 in 15.1 overs( Venkatesh Iyer 53, Rahul Tripathi 74*; Jasprit Bumrah 3/43) Mumbai Indians 155/6 in 20 overs(Quinton de Kock 55, Rohit Sharma 33; Lockie Ferguson 2/27, Sunil Narine 1/20) by 7 wickets.
 and Rahul Tripathi(74) powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a 7-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians.){kind=link}