Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Qualifier 2 - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Double Attack By Karn Sharma

Woohoo! Gambhir goes. The City of Joy is not so joyous tonight! How many television sets go off rightaway? Many, I bet. The only man who could have bailed KKR out of the early rut was the captain himself. But he sinks, absolutely collapses after playing that slog sweep. The shot was on with the ball spinning into him. No connection, really. Straight to the man stationed at deep mid-wicket. Did he need to move an inch? NO. But it still gives MI an advantage by a country mile

Colin de Grandhomme is gone first ball. Not many bowl the wrong un' back in New Zealand. Before he realised, he was out. Spins back in a long way, the bat is not even halfway down. Can it get more plumb than that? Karn is weaving magic!

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Our Stats Gun - Deepu Narayanan - fires this one, perfect timing by him, perfect by MI, not so much for KKR. Here it goes:

25/3 - Lowest PP score for KKR this season

Coming into this match, they had the highest PP run rate in IPL 2017 - 9.92

Lowest PP score for KKR in IPL:

21 v DC, 2009

22 v CSK, 2010

24 v KXIP, 2010

25 v MI, 2011

25 v MI, 2017*

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Local Boy Doesn't Impress Much

Kolkata still looking for their hero of the night. Still futile. Bumrah can't do a thing wrong tonight. Gets a sharp incoming ball. Struck above the knee roll but he was bending, wasn't he? OUT is the verdict. What does the replay say? Top of the leg stump. Like my friend Abhishek tells me, in a batsman's format, such calls are just about fair. I second that!!

Narine's Worst On Biggest Day?

Narine scratched around for ten balls for ten runs. Yes, he hit a six but that just wasn't enough for KKR on a wicket where they needed to get off to an explosive start. Things get worse as Narine falls too, especially after the number of balls he faced, KKR would not be too happy. Karn Sharma strikes in his first over. Mumbai on top

First Blood

MI take Lynn out of the way early. The net was thrown and Lynn - the big fish - has been caught. Up there and he goes for it. He had to. No boundaries in the first over is just not Lynn and he feels the heat. Miscued hit goes straight down Pollard's throat. Those bucket hands can't err, can they? Advantage MI already

Homework, Well Done?

Looks like a sharp field setting already. Right from the first ball against Lynn, Rohit has a fielder at long on. He loves hitting straight and they have their bases covered already.

Getting Started

Narine and Lynn indeed. They have come out to open the innings for KKR. Johnson will do what McClenaghan does - open the bowling for MI. This IPL, McClenaghan has picked up the most number of wickets in the powerplay overs. He would be missed tonight.

What is your take on the impact of toss, knowing Bangalore's weather forecast for the night? I will stick my neck out and say, Mumbai Indians have gained the advantage already. One way KKR could negate a bit of that is by sending Narine and Lynn at the top and knock as many as possible in the powerplay overs.

Gambhir had called for realism in the last game. Don't plan for 170-180s on this surface, you will not get there more often than not.

Elevens

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Gautam Gambhir(c), Robin Uthappa(w), Ishank Jaggi, Suryakumar Yadav, Colin de Grandhomme, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Lendl Simmons, Parthiv Patel(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Karn Sharma, Mitchell Johnson, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga

Team News

One change as Mitchell McClenaghan is injured and has been replaced by the other Mitchell - Johnson.

KKR have made a bold move, one of their constants over the years - Yusuf Pathan - has been left out as Ankit Rajpoot comes in place for him. Colin de Grandhomme replaces Trent Boult.

Btw, still experience over the young sensation. Piyush Chawla continues to keep Kuldeep Yadav out in the knock-out stage. Why not? He picked up the big fish in the previous contest - David Warner

Toss Time, Folks

Mumbai Indians have won the toss and chosen the obvious - bowl first. The Knight Riders will sorely miss Manish Pandey, their man for all seasons. He had missed out on the Eliminator too, with a side strain. Things not quite hunky dory as news trickled in last evening that he had been ruled out of Champions Trophy too.

More Pre-Toss Action

Lasith Malinga, Karn Sharma and Mitchell Johnson are rolling their arms over. No McClenaghan yet.

SPOTTED: Nitish Rana is taking throw downs right now. Might just be considered in place of Rayudu for tonight's contest. Remember the first time he played against KKR in Mumbai, it was Rana who stole the show.

No sign of Harbhajan yet. Karn Sharma, meanwhile, has finished warm-ups and started bowling

Prakash Govindasreenivasan, as always, on time. He is already at the M. Chinnaswamy and writes to us stating, "Clear skies at the moment. Shane Bond and Hardik Pandya first two to come out. Boult and Southee walk out together and in conversation."

Preview

While MI enter this contest as clear favourites, KKR would look to use the Chinnaswamy familiarity to their advantage. Prakash Govindasreenivasan previewed the game for us last evening. This makes for a good read

Quick Recap

For the major half of the tournament, both Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders were involved in a musical chairs contest for the top spot in the points table. And the inevitable battle could have thrown a clear winner only when the two faced off against each other.

When KKR went to Mumbai's fortress, the visitors threw the game away in the last three overs, that after having dominated most parts of the contest. It was also one of the first instances of KKR's flawed fielding coming to the fore. The return competition wasn't any different either, with KKR inexplicably botching the run-chase thanks to some irresponsible shots and no planning at all. At the end of the game, a fuming KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir thought that his boys were perhaps looking to chase down the target in 10-12 overs. Of course, that was not to suggest that they did so to qualify as No. 1. It was a sarcastic dig at his teammates.

MI were the clear toppers till they ran into Rising Pune Supergiant in the first qualifier. MI skipper Rohit Sharma mentioned with confidence that one bad game doesn't make his side a poor unit. By virtue of their stellar show in the league stages, they are here with a second chance.

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