Brett Lee opened the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) campaign as defending champions in 2013 with a first-ball wicket that made Eden Gardens twist and shout. Next in terms of effect will be Shivam Mavi’s wicket maiden against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Wednesday.
When Quinton de Kock skied a pull and then kept Rohit Sharma quiet, Mavi struck with his second ball.
After missing IPL2019 due to injury, Mavi has returned to the bowl at the death and also got Sharma, that was after the MI skipper had scored 80 (54b; 3×4; 6×6), because KKR bowled short, the sixes coming mostly from pulls.
The erratic effort encapsulated by Pat Cummins’s 3rd over where he kept banging it in just for Hardik Pandya to step inside the line and pull him for two fours and a six, KKR also bowled 11 wides and a no-ball.
Cummins didn’t complete his quota and leaked 49 runs, purchased for Rs 15.50 crore. That meant that the 18th and 20th overs would have Mavi to bowl. He went for 11, and 13 and MI managed 195/5, their last five overs yielding 48, with Andre Russell conceding just four in the 19th.
With disciplined bowling, MI followed up the professional batting success that brought their 20th victory against KKR in 26 games. After the openers Sunil Narine and Shubman Gill went early, the asking rate crossing 10 in the third over and 12 in the 10th on a wide ground in Abu Dhabi meant KKR needed more than the beavering of Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana.
Pollard bowled a tidy spell in his 150th game for MI and took his first wicket since 2015 when Hardik Pandya took a spectacular g-catch to dismiss Rana (24). By the time Russell and Eoin Morgan were eliminated by Jaspreet Bumrah in the space of three balls, KKR was playing to defend the net run rate.
That was because, on the way to the 49-run victory, MI’s pacers bowled better lines and lengths.
To capture the initiative, Sharma and Surya Kumar Yadav harnessed the profligacy of KKR.
Yadav got into the groove as Sandeep Warrier sprayed on both sides of the wicket, starting with a streaky cut for four, the shot almost disturbing his furniture. Yadav (47; 28b; 4×6; 1×6) and Sharma created an exquisite series of shots for the next nine overs, mostly square from the wicket.
In his first over, Kuldeep Yadav went for 11, Russell 13, Cummins 15, after Warrier had left for 16 in his second.
Saurabh Tiwary (21), Pollard (13), and Hardik Pandya (18) played valuable cameos, with Sharma keeping the innings together. In his final over, Kuldeep went for 15, Sharma hitting two sixes, the second by giving him the push and smashing over long-on.
It was reminiscent of the care given to Kuldeep by Moen Ali that the game against Royal Challengers was his last of the campaign.
