Summary: Third straight win for Mumbai Indians and two back to back wins against KKR. Anyone who watched 41^st match of IPL 2018 between MI vs KKR would not believe that at one point they were struggling at the bottom of the table. It was indeed a pleasure for MI fans to watch them thrashing KKR by massive 102 runs in Eden Garden Kolkata. The hosts KKR won the toss and asked MI to bat first. MI lost 2 wickets by the end of 9 overs at 62 runs. The magic started when Ishan Kishan came to bat at number 4. Kishan scored 62 runs in just 21 balls hitting five 4s and six 6s, changed the entire game for MI. Rohit scored 36 whereas Cutting was caught by Chawla at 24 off 9 balls. MI ended the last over with 22 runs taking the total score to 210 for 6. Chawla took 3 wickets, but turned out to be expensive giving away 48 runs. Kolkata Knight Riders was all out for 108 in 18.1 overs. They lost 6 wickets in the first 10 overs. The highest scorer from KKR was Lynn and Rana with 21 runs each. Pandya brother took two wickets each for MI.

Going by the last 3 seasons of IPL, Mumbai Indians get to its original form when most of the people start feeling that they are out of the game. And this year is also no different. The skipper Sharma even said that May month works best in their favor and that’s how they have been winning back to back games. Wednesday match against KKR was a pure delight to watch for MI fans, specially the way its wicket-keeper Kishan thrashed away the KKR bowlers scoring 62 runs in just 21 balls being caught by Narine in the boundary in 15^th over. However, MI did not stop there and the thrashing was continued by Hardik and Cutting with MI scoring 66 runs in last 32 balls after Ishan went back to pavilion. Except Narine and Russel, all other bowlers ended up with economy rate of more than 10, most expensive being Chawla and Yadav.

While chasing a target of 211, the KKR started on attacking mode, however the wickets kept on falling and no batsman could stay on the crease for long. Narine was out in the first over itself, while Lynn and Uthapa went back in 4^th and 7^th over. The target was so massive that they had no option but to hit the ball, which resulted in continuous fall of wickets. KKR was finally all out in 19^th over scoring just 108 against a target of 211. MI bowlers also did a fantastic job with both Hardik and Krunal taking two wickets each whereas all other four bowlers claimed one wicket each. Ishan Kishan, undoubtedly was given Player of the Match trophy.

At the end of this game, both the teams interchanged their position in the points table. Mumbai now standing at 4^th whereas KKR fell down to number 5, with both the teams having scored 10 points in 11 matches, however MI beating KKR in terms of NRR.

Summary: It was much needed second straight win for Mumbai Indians. With this they remain in the 5^th position with 8 points whereas Kolkata Knight Riders remains in top 4 in the Points Table with 10 points. Mumbai Indians decided to bat first and its opener batsmen Suryakumar Yadav and Lewis contributed 91 runs partnership for the opening wicket. Yadav scored 59 off 39 balls whereas Lewis scored 43 off 28 balls. Hardik Pandya remained unbeaten at 35 off 20 balls. KKR’s Piyush Chawla turned out to be little expensive with 35 for 0 in 3 overs. Narine and Russel managed a couple of wickets each. While chasing a target of 182, KKR could manage just 168 for 6 in 20 overs. Uthapa and Rana scored 54 and 31 respectively. Despite KKR’s skipper Karthik remained unbeaten at 36, they could not pull off the match as Russel and Narine could not stay longer in the crease. Hardik Pandya bowled an excellent spell with 19 for 2 in 4 overs.

Mumbai Indians opening batsmen Suryakumar Yadav and Lewis had set the tone for their team scoring 91 runs in 9.2 overs. With 59 runs, this was Yadav’s fourth fifty in the tournament. Before, Lewis was caught by Chris Lynn in 10^th overs, it seemed that MI would end up scoring close to 200, however the scoring slowed down a bit with Rohit Sharma and Yadav going back to pavilion in 12^th and 15^th over. However, Hardik Pandya’s 35 runs off 20 balls helped Mumbai Indians finish off the innings with 181 runs. Andrew Russel took two important wickets of Yadav and Lewis and ended his spell excellently with 12 for 2 in 2 overs.   

Chasing a total of 182 runs, KKR lost its opening batman Chris Lynn and Shubham Gill in 3^rd and 4^th over respectively. However Rana and Uthapa’s partnership took the team score to 112 in 12.3 overs when Uthapa was caught by Cutting. Uthapa was also lucky to have been dropped much early by Mayank Markande. Uthapa scored 54 off 35 balls with the help of six 4s and three 6s. Rana also could not stay much longer and went back in the next over. KKR’s skipper Dinesh Karthik tried harder to be on the winning side but was not supported much by the next line of batsman Russel and Narine. Finally KKR could end up with 168 for 6 in 20 overs. Hardik Pandya’s excellent batting towards the end along with superb bowling helped Mumbai Indians win this important match. Pandya was declared as the Player of the Match as well.

Although the position of both the teams remains same after the end of this match, with KKR and MI remaining at 4^th and 5^th number, MI’s hope of making it to qualifiers is inching closer.