IPL 2024: Venkatesh Iyer’s 70, Stac’s four-fer top SKY’s 56 as KKR beat MI for second-ever win at Wankhede

Venkatesh Iyer’s brilliant fighting half-century topped a similar effort by Suryakumar Yadav as Mitchell Star’s four-fer helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians by 24 runs in a low-scoring Match 51 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, securing their first win at the Wankhede after 2012 and second over at the iconic venue.

In a match dominated by the bowlers, Venkatesh Iyer rescued KKR from a precarious 57/5 by scoring a valiant 52-ball 70 to help them reach a lowly 169. KKR’s spin twins, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, then claimed identical hauls of 4-22 in their four overs each to reduce Mumbai Indians to 61/4.

Mumbai were soon down to 71/6 before Suryakumar Yadav launched a valiant rescue attempt, hauling them to 120 in the company of Tim David before Andre Russell (2-30) and Mitchell Starc shared five wickets between them to end Mumbai Indians’ fightback.

Starc claimed three wickets in the 19th over, two of them off successive deliveries, as he finished with 4-33. Mumbai Indians were bowled out for 145, sealing a morale-boosting victory for KKR against a team that had won 23 out of 32 matches before this encounter.

Chasing 170 on a two-paced wicket, Mumbai Indians got off to a poor start with Ishan Kishan (13), Naman Dhir (11) and Rohit Sharma (13), coming in as Impact Substitutes, getting out within the Power-play as they slumped to 46/3.

Mumbai found the going tough despite the dew on a two-paced wicket as Kishan was foxed by extra pace and saw his leg-stump cartwheeling, Dhir was undone by his urge after Varun Chakravarthy as the ball turned and left him unbalanced, disturbing the furniture while Rohit Sharma mistimed a sweep off Sunil Narine and ballooned an easy catch to midwicket.

Tilak Varma, who has saved MI on several occasions, failed to enact the rescue act on Friday as he top-edged a simple catch to Sunil Narine off Chakravarthy, as he drove a fullish delivery that dipped in a bit and was slow off the pitch.

And when Nehal Wadhera chopped a widish one from Narine into his stumps, Mumbai Indians were down to 70/5, just slightly better than Kolkata Knight Riders who were 57/5 at one time.

Their hopes rested on Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya to do what Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey did for KKR, revive the innings with a good partnership.

But Pandya lasted only three deliveries before Andre Russell sent him back, the Mumbai Indians chipping a catch to midwicket, falling prey to a slower delivery.

Suryakumar Yadav (56 off 35 balls) then launched a one-man rescue effort as he hammered a half-century to take Mumbai Indians past the 100-run mark. He found a willing partner in Tim David as they repaired the innings.

Yadav hammered Vaibhav Arora for 20 runs in the 14th over, ramping him to third-man boundary, slicing a dipping slower free-hit delivery after a no-ball for a six and following it up with back-to-back boundaries, hooking him between fine-leg and deep square-leg as he reached fifty off 30 balls, studded with five boundaries and two sixes.

Mumbai Indians needed 51 runs from 30 balls, but they suffered a big setback as Yadav got out, his fighting knock ending when he went for a big hit off a full-length delivery by Andre Russel but only managed to sky it miles high only for wicketkeeper Phil Salt to run down to fine leg to catch it over his shoulder, nearly colliding with a fine-leg fielder, who moved away in the last second.

Tim David and Gerald Coetzee struck a few lusty blows and brought the equation to 30 off 12 balls, David swept Mitchell Starc for a six over fine leg but got out off the next delivery, hitting a full-toss straight to Shreyas Iyer, Starc claimed Chawla off the next delivery as he chipped it to extra-cover and though Bumrah scored a single off the hat-trick delivery, Coetzee got out off the next delivery to end Mumbai Indians’ attempts to make a match of it.

The win took KKR to 14 points from seven wins in 10 matches as they inched closer to table-toppers Rajasthan Royals. Mumbai Indians remained rooted at the ninth position with six points from 11 matches, their chances of reaching the playoffs virtually over with three more matches to play.

Earlier, Thushara and Bumrah claimed three wickets apiece at either end of the KKR innings to restrict the visitors to 169 despite a fighting half-century by Venkatesh Iyer after skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and elected to bowl first.

The name Ilandari Dewage Nuwan Thushara — is a mouthful for anyone. On Friday, the Sri Lankan pacer with a slingy bowling action that reminds of Mumbai Indians’ legend Lasith Malinga, proved a handful for Kolkata Knight Riders batters. The 29-year-old landed three lethal blows in his first spell of two overs, sending back the dangerous Phil Salt (5), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (13) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (6) as KKR slumped to 28/3 in three overs.

After opening the bowling with Thushara and Bumrah, Pandya brought himself into the attack and was carted for a huge six by Sunil Narine off his first delivery. But the Mumbai Indians skipper had his man off the next delivery as this time he beat the West Indies batter with pace and bowled him.

KKR were struggling at 57/4 after the Power-play and it became 57/5 when Piyush Chawla had Rinku Singh caught off his own bowling for nine.

Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey, brought in as an Impact Substitute for Raghuvanshi, revived the innings with an 83-run partnership for the sixth wicket, starting cautiously before unleashing some superb shots to boost the scoring rate.

Venkatesh started by hitting two fours off Gerald Coetzee in the fourth over and took a four off Naman Dhir. After a spell of slow batting, he exploded into action in the 12th over, hammering a four and a six off Coetzee, the maximum over extra-cover fence executed quite well. He reached his half-century off 36 balls, studded with five boundaries and a six.

The experienced Pandey, who tonked Bumrah for a four and six in three balls in the 14th over, hammered Pandya over long-on for another six but fell soon after as Hardik sent down a slow cutter wide off off-stump and the Karnataka batter was caught by substitute Brevis at extra-cover as he chased the wide one.

Pandey made 42 off 31 balls, hitting two fours and as many sixes, but did his job in his first outing as he helped KKR recover from a precarious position.

Disaster struck KKR when Venkatesh Iyer and Andre Russell, after hitting a six each off Pandya, got into a horrendous mix-up, resulting in the West Indies dasher getting run out for seven.

Venkatesh continued to propel the KKR innings but Bumrah expedited their debacle by landing two blows in the 18th over, sending back Ramandeep Singh and Mitchell Starc with two superb deliveries.

From 140/5, the Knight Riders slipped to 155/9 and their innings finally ended when Bumrah beat Venkatesh Iyer with an un-hittable delivery as he lost his balance and fell over, trying to flick him to the boundary. Venkatesh got out for 70 off 52 balls, his brilliant fighting effort providing KKR something to defend.

Only three KKR batters — Venkatesh Iyer, Manish Pandey and Raghuvanshi — managed to reach double figures as the Mumbai Indians bowlers used the conditions perfectly to restrict them to a paltry total.

Brief scores:

Kolkata Knight Riders 169 all out in 19.5 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 70, Manish Pandey 42; Jasprit Bumrah 3-18, Nuwan Thushara 3-42, Hardik Pandya 2-44) beat Mumbai Indians 145 all out in 18.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 56; Mitchell Starc 4-33, Sunil Narine 2-22, Varun Chakravarthy 2-22, Andre Russell 2-30) by 24 runs