Ishan Kishan guides Mumbai Indians to 102-run victory

The Mumbai team overcame a slow start to post an imposing 210/6, as Ishan tore apart KKR bowling, especially Kuldeep Yadav who was clobbered for four consecutive sixes, en route to his 21-ball 62 (5x4, 6x6) as MI scripted a turnaround in the middle overs. 

In reply, KKR was always behind in the chase as it lost wickets in clusters to be bowled out for 108 in the 19th over. 

Ishan was responsible for the momentum shifting in favour of MI in the 14th over that yielded 25 runs. He maed a mockery of chinaman Kuldeep’s bowling. The bulk of Mumbai’s runs -- 148 -- came from boundaries. 

First, Ishan swept Kuldeep high over deep square leg, then smashed across the line, followed by stepping out to hit the bowler over long on to get to his fifty -- the joint second fastest of the season with Sunil Narine. 

Ishan ended the over with a helicopter shot that would surely make his Ranchi mentor MS Dhoni smile as MI scored 73 runs in five middle overs to reach to 145/3 in 15 overs from being a modest 72/2 midway into its innings. 

After Ishan, it was Cutting show as he hit the first three balls of the final over for a six each en route to his nine-ball 24 (1x4, 3x6) as MI finished on a high with 22 runs in the final over bowled by Piyush Chawla. 

Kuldeep retrurned most expensive with 43 runs from his three overs, followed by Chawla who took 3/48 but was expensive. But the picture looked different midway into MI’s innings with Sunil Narine (1/27) giving them the initial edge after Dinesh Karthik opted to chase. 

Openers Suryakumar Yadav (36) and Evin Lewis (18) once again gave MI a flying start with the KKR pace trio of Andre Russell, Prasidh Krishna and Tom Curran leaking 24 runs in the first three overs. 

As has been their ploy, Narine came inside the powerplay and cleverly deceived the batsmen with his guile to restrict the run flow with nine runs from his first two overs. 

Mumbai was 62/2 inside nine overs. But then came Ishan who hit top gear, dealing with only fours and sixes in his whirlwind half-century. The Knight Riders lost the big-hitting Sunil Narine in the first over itself, the left-hander falling to McClenaghan. 

Though KKR took 12 runs from the first over, the total was imposing and it required lusty hitting at both ends. But when Chris Lynn was run out for 21 in the fourth over, the KKR chase was halted. Between overs eight and 10 Andre Russell, captain Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana got out as Mumbai virtually won the match.