Abu Dhabi: Quinton de Kock half century 78 off 44 not out, skipper Rohit Sharma 35 and 94 run stand between duo for first wicket helped MI beat KKR comprehensively by 8 wickets in the 32nd Match of the IPL Sheikh Zayed Stadium here on Friday.
From 8 matches this is MIs sixth win gaining no 1 spot in the IP table while KKR from 8 matches have lost their 4th match and remain at 4th spot.
Kolkata owed an unbeaten partnership of 87 runs in just 56 balls for the sixth wicket with the first-ever T20 half-century of fifty-five-crore player and fast bowler Pat Cummins (53 not out) and his new captain Eoin Morgan (39 not out). A challenging score of 148 for five but this score was not enough to stop the strong Mumbai team.
Mumbai scored 149 runs at the loss of two wickets in 16.5 overs to achieve the sixth win in eight matches this season. Kolkata, on the other hand, suffered a fourth defeat in eight matches. Mumbai moved to the top spot in the table after this win, while Kolkata are in fourth place with eight points.
Chasing a small target, Mumbai were led by skipper Rohit Sharma and D Cock for a 94-run partnership for the first wicket. Rohit scored 35 runs in 36 balls with the help of five fours and a six and was dismissed by Shivam Mavi.
De Kock scored a match-winning 78 not out off just 44 balls with the help of nine fours and three sixes. Suryakumar Yadav was bowled by Varun Chakraborty for 10 runs. Hardik Pandya remained unbeaten 21 runs off 11 balls with the help of three fours and a six.
Earlier, Kolkata won the toss and decided to bat first but it started poorly and at one time five wickets had fallen to 61 runs in the 11th over but Cummins and Morgan batted brilliantly after that. Cummins hit five fours and two sixes in an unbeaten 53 off 36 balls. Morgan hit two fours and two sixes in an unbeaten 39 off 29 balls.
Cummins, the most expensive foreign player of this IPL, scored his first T20 half-century. Morgan got the captaincy due to Dinesh Karthik leaving the captaincy and did full justice to this new responsibility but could not make his team win. Both batsmen added 35 runs in the last two overs. 21 runs in the last over itself.
