After the clash between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, Australia’s World Cup-winner allrounder Shane Watson said that the Kolkata-based franchise didn’t deserve to win the match as they lost the first five wickets very quickly. Riding on an 83-run stand between Venkatesh Iyer–Manish Pandey followed by Mitchell Starc‘s pure pace magic KKR registered a 24-run victory against MI at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.
Starc made an extraordinary comeback in the tournament returning with a figure of 4-33. The Knight Riders ended their 12-year wait for a victory at the Wankhede stadium with a 24-run win to edge closer to the playoff spots.
Former Australian cricketer asserted that the Knight Riders had no right to win the match after losing the first five wickets so early in the clash against the five-time champion MI.
“KKR had no right to win that game tonight after the position they were in five wickets down. It just shows the fight that they have and also just some of the things that happened. Some of the decisions that were made whether that was bowling changes or batting lineup deployment, some of those decisions were very baffling just to really give KKR the upper hand in a game that was just on a knife’s edge at certain times,” Watson, a former IPL champion with Chennai Super Kings, said on Jio Cinema.
The 42-year-old further stated that this victory will give the Shreyas Iyer-led side a lot of confidence.
“Look that will give KKR so much confidence to know that they don’t have to be at their very best and be in a position where the game was nearly done and they’ve got the fight and determination to find their way to actually get on the right side of the result,” the two-time IPL champion added.
Coming to the match, put to bat first, a solid partnership stand of 83 runs between Venkatesh Iyer (70 off 52) and Manish Pandey (42 off 31) guided KKR to 169. For MI, Jasprit Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers at 3 for 18 in 3.5 overs with two wickets in one over.
In reply, MI were bundled out for 145. Starc made a terrific comeback in the tournament returning with a figure of 4-33 in just 3.5 spells, handing KKR a 24-run victory. Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine both finished with identical figures of 2/22, including some big wickets in the first half of the chase which put KKR on top in the match.
Following the win, KKR stand in second place on IPL 2024 standings with 14 points. Meanwhile, MI hold ninth place with 6 points by their name.
KKR will next take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.
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