Russell and Cummins tie the noose over MI

With Sharma gone and Mumbai Indians having to do without one of their consistent batsmen Suryakumar Yadav for the rest of the tournament due to left forearm muscle injury, it was not going to be easy for MI. The onus was on the two left-handed batsmen Ishan Kishan and Tilak Verma. These two have been among the runs with the latter being more impressive while the former has been inconsistent.

The KKR bowlers did not allow MI to build one big partnership and cut down the boundary shots to a great extent. Verma, who has caught the eye with his wide range of strokes, fell to Russell’s brilliance in the West Indian’s first over, the fifth of the MI innings.

Verma, who had slashed Russell over the slip cordon for four, was tied down with a tight line the next delivery and he ended up edging to lone slip Nitish Rana in the same over. With MI reduced to 32 for two in five overs, Kishan and Ramandeep Singh, Suryakumar Yadav’s replacement, were building a small partnership. Though Ramandeep is inexperienced and did not look to threaten the KKR bowling, it was all on Kishan to hit big.

As MI rode along for the next five overs and adding 26 runs in this five-over phase, Russell was back in the attack in the 11^th over. Ramandeep was overambitious in trying to clear the mid-wicket boundary and his top-edge ended up in short third man’s hands. Russell, though, bowled three loose deliveries for the new man Tim David to pick three successive fours.

However, David was out after scoring only one in his next five deliveries, this time slow bowler Varun Chakravarthy striking in his return over, the 13^th of the innings. MI’s final hopes of a win rested on the fifth wicket pair of Kishan and Kieron Pollard.

Soon after Kishan reached his third fifty of the season, 12^th of his IPL career, he fell to Cummins, skying a pull for Rinku Singh to complete a good catch running in from deep square leg. That was the first of Cummins’ three strikes in his third over. Cummins struck again when Daniel Sams played an ugly shot and top-edged to wicketkeeper Jackson while Murugan Ashwin’s upper cut landed into the hands of Varun Chakravarthy at third man boundary.

Cummins finished with three for 22 and Russell, two for 22 while two run out later in the MI innings ended the match with two and a half overs unutilised.

It was clearly a match that MI should have won but credit to KKR bowlers, especially Russell and Cummins, for turning the match in their favour and keeping themselves in the race for the Play Offs.