Mumbai Indians beat Kings by six wickets

If the KKR batting order gets going, MI may find it hard to keep themselves in contention in the race for the play-offs.

Mumbai: Kolkata Knight Riders vice-captain Robin Uthappa has praised the all-round skills of his team-mate Sunil Narine but said that the West Indian has been doing better in the bowling department this IPL season. They have dominated in the games they have won, and in the other games, they just haven’t been able to finish games off as they expected.

Mumbai skipper Rohit used seven bowlers of which Jasprit Bumrah (1/19) stood out while Mitchell McClenaghan (1/31) also bowled well.

When hopes looked bleak for Mumbai, skipper Rohit Sharma played his shots well and kept, the scoreboard ticking, with the required run rate under control.

Ishan Kishan (25) and Hardik Pandya (23) threatened to change that when they came out to bat, although they both failed to build on good starts.

Can Mumbai pick up a much-needed win, or will the Kings XI Punjab prove too strong? It will be also interesting to see if they make a wholesale of changes to their line-up. Yuvraj is one of the best batsmen in the world when he is on the song, but has been lacklustre in the recent games. So Shubman found himself at 6 and 7 floating.

Yuvraj Singh, who was dropped for the SRH game after a string of low scores in the first six games, managed just 14.

The Buttler-Ajinkya Rahane combination at the top is the one that RR would be looking can get the job done with six games remaining in the league phase.

Why didn’t Rohit bat at No. 3?

MI recorded a thrilling win over Punjab on Friday night in a tie they had to win to keep alive their slim chances of making the play-offs.

Do let us know if we missed any interesting moment from MI vs KXIP match highlights. But it was the Krunal Pandya whirlwind that sealed the stamp of authority on Punjab! While New Zealander Mitchell McLenaghan was hammered for three sixes in the final over by Royal Challengers Bangalore batsmen, Hardik leaked over 20 runs in the final over against Kings XI. Kings XI have problems with their middle order.

Why did JP Duminy bowl? .

And, to progress, we need to obviously improve on our fielding besides bowling. They have found themselves coming in a bit too early for their comfort which has exposed their technical fragilities. Hardik Pandya’s all-round performance in the last game, while Bumrah is an excellent choice with the ball.

Suryakumar’s 57 came off in 42 balls hitting six fours and three sixes. “From the outside when I look at it, he’s got another opportunity to contribute to the team which had made him more successful as a player”, the right-handed bastman explained. The likes of Mayank Markande and Krunal Pandya have been very good this IPL, especially young Markande who has spun his way to success this IPL.

Later, Yadav and Lewis started to chase for the team MI. While Rohit’s knock was about elegance, Krunal plundered the KXIP bowlers.