Ishan Kishan smashed a 17-ball half-century and led defending champions Mumbai Indians to the fourth spot in IPL 2018 with a resounding 102-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old left-hander Kishan blazed 62 off 21 balls with five fours and six sixes which propelled Mumbai to 210-6. His half century is now tied at the second spot, along with Sunil Narine, for the fastest fifty in IPL 2018.
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Kolkata lost its way early on in pursuit of its biggest run-chase in the IPL before it was bowled out for only 108 in 18.1 overs.
This is Mumbai Indians’ eighth consecutive victory over Kolkata Knight Riders.
Mumbai pushed Kolkata to No. 5 on superior net run-rate with both teams on 10 points with five victories from 11 games.
As a team we tend to pick up in the month of May. Without doubt Ishan Kishan’s fearless knock was the turning point ... he just came in and changed momentum.Rohit Sharma, Captain - Mumbai Indians
Kolkata openers Chris Lynn (21) and Sunil Narine (4) were dismissed inside the batting powerplay. Narine top edged in the first over and Lynn was run out in a mixup with Robin Uthappa.
Uthappa (14) holed out at deep midwicket in leg-spinner Mayank Markande's first over and, when Andre Russell was caught at cover, Kolkata had lost all its hard-hitters and reeled at 54-4 in eight overs.
Poor running between the wickets cost captain Dinesh Karthik, who was run out in another mixup with Nitish Rana.
The Pandya brothers — seamer Hardik (2-12) and left-arm spinner Krunal (2-16) — picked up two wickets each as Kolkata lost both its games against Mumbai.
It was a good batting wicket, but we lost wickets in the powerplay and it’s always tough to catch up. We need to raise our skill levels and belief a bit, as a leader I need to stand up and say I believe in the boys.Dinesh Karthik, Captain - KKR
Earlier, after being sent into bat, Kolkata had no answer to Kishan's sensational hitting as he used his feet well against both spinners and seamers.
Kishan smashed medium fast Prasidh Krishna (1-41) for three boundaries in an over before smacking four successive sixes off left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav (0-43).
Ben Cutting (24 off 9) provided a perfect finish to the innings when Piyush Chawla (3-48) conceded 22 runs in the last over with the Australian hitting a four and two sixes, and Krunal lofted the leg-spinner for a six off the last ball.
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