Ishan fireworks light up Eden

KKR collapse chasing 211 after former U19 skipper’s brilliant knock, Mumbai Indians win by 102 runs

KOLKATA: Mumbai Indians (MI) stayed on course to be the first team in IPL 2018 to do the double on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), showing again that no matter how poorly they start the season, they usually course-correct at the business end.

The holders set a target of 211, and KKR, reduced to 93/8 in 13.5 overs, were dismissed for 108 in 18.1 overs. KKR’S reply unravelled early with Sunil Narine gone off the innings’ second ball and Chris Lynn off the fourth over’s last ball. Lynn and Dinesh Karthik’s run outs summed up how an evening that looked promising with KKR restricting MI to 72/2 after 10 overs went into a tailspin as night descended on Eden Gardens.

Mumbai Indians won by 102 runs.

T20 is tuned to providing excitement every ball but occasionally it throws up ridiculously one-sided games. MI’S eighth successive victory against KKR was one such and it happened with Shah Rukh Khan in the house.

So, as MI motor along nicely having won their third straight tie, KKR now have everything to do on the home stretch, including repairing the nett run rate.

And that happened because Ishan Kishan played a blinder; his 21-ball 62 giving this game such a shake-up that all MI had to do was play sensibly thereon.

The 19-year-old wicket-keeper from Jharkhand hit five fours and six sixes, four of them coming off successive Kuldeep Yadav deliveries. En route, Kishan got to a 17-ball half-century, the jointsecond fastest of this competition.