ABU DHABI, Oct 16:
The Mumbai Indians juggernaut rolled on unabated as they recorded their fifth straight win with an eight-wicket mauling of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL here on Friday.
A tidy bowling effort by Mumbai Indians ensured that KKR were restricted to 148 for five after an unbeaten 53 by pace spearhead Pat Cummins.
Then, the defending champions rode on a blistering 44-ball 78 by Quinton de Kock, to chase down the target with 3.1 overs to spare.
De Kock, who struck nine fours and three sixes and skipper Rohit Sharma (35 off 36 balls), laid the foundation for the emphatic win with their 94-run first-wicket stand.
The two openers took the KKR attack to cleansers with de Kock being the more aggressive one. The South African notched up his fifty in just 25 balls, with a maximum over deep-square leg.
It rained boundaries for Mumbai as the two dominated the KKR bowling attack.
Pacer Prasidh Krishna (0/30) faced their brunt, conceding three fours in the third over and de Kock followed that up by hammering Cummins (0/28) for two successive fours, both pull shots, in the next.
De Kock kept playing shots all around the park and was again brutal on Prasidh, whom he hit for two fours and a six, in the seventh over, which fetched Mumbai 16 runs.
KKR tried to pull things back by removing Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav (10) in quick succession, but de Kock continued his onslaught with gusto and took the side home in the company of Hardik Pandya (21 off 11 balls), who played a small cameo.
Earlier, after a top-order failure, it was Cummins (53 off 36 balls 5×4;2×6) and new skipper Eoin Morgan (39 not out off 29 balls; 2×4; 2×6), who conjured 87 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket, to pull KKR out of trouble after they were reeling at 61 for five in the 11th over. (PTI)
scoreboard
Kolkata Knight Riders:
R Tripathi c Yadav b Boult 7
S Gill c Pollard b Rahul Chahar 21
N Rana c de Kock b Coulter-Nile 5
D Karthik b Rahul Chahar 4
E Morgan not out 39
A Russell c de Kock b Bumrah 12
P Cummins not out 53
Extras (lb-2, w-5) 7
Total (For 5 wkts, 20 Overs) 148
Fall of Wickets: 1-18, 2-33, 3-42, 4-42, 5-61,
Bowlers: T Boult 4-0-32-1, N Coulter-Nile 4-0-51-1, J Bumrah 4-0-22-1, K Pandya 4-0-23-0, R Chahar 4-0-18-2.
Mumbai Indians:
Rohit Sharma (c)c Karthik b Shivam Mavi 35
Quinton de Kock (wk) not out78
Suryakumar Yadav b Chakravarthy 10
Hardik Pandyanot out 21
Extras (b 0, lb 5, w 0, nb 0, p 0) 5
Total (2 wkts, 16.5 Ov) 149
Fall of wicket: 1-94, 2-111
Bowlers: Chris Green 2.5-0-24-0, Pat Cummins 3-0-28-0, Prasidh Krishna 2-0-30-0, Andre Russell 2-0-15-0, Varun Chakravarthy 4-0-23-1, Shivam Mavi 3-0-24-1.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
