IPL 2024: Venkatesh Iyer's knock, superb bowling help KKR beat MI, seal Playoffs

A brilliant bowling effort led by spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine after Venkatesh Iyers blazing knock helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians by 18 runs and become the first team to qualify for the Playoffs in the Indian Premier League IPL 2024 on SaturdayWith this win Kolkata Knight Riders became the first team to secure their place in the Playoff moving to 18 points from nine wins from 12 matches This was their second win over MI this season having beaten them at the Wankhede stadium a few days backIn a match that started around 90 minutes late and was reduced to 16oversaside because of rain Kolkata Knight Riders were in trouble on two occasions but came back strongly both times to secure a memorable double victory over Mi this seasonAlso ReadNo Neymar in Brazilrsquos Copa America squadAsked to bat first KKR were in a precarious position at 403 in the fifth over before a brilliant rearguard innings by Venkatesh Iyer who blasted a 21bal 42 and shared a 37run partnership for the fourth wicket with Nitish Rana 33 Crucial cameos by Andre Russell 24 and Rinku Singh helped them reach a challenging 1577 in 16 oversKKR landed in a difficult situation once again as Mumbai Indians blazed to 65 for no loss in the seventh over when Ishan Kishan hit a 22ball 40 studded with five boundaries and two sixes However the introduction of the spinners Sunil and Varun Chakravarthy changed the complexion of the match and turned things towards the hostsNarine sent back the wellsettled Ishan Kishan while Chakravarthy claimed the key wickets of Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya to derail Mumbai Indians innings The fivetime champions needed 70 off 30 balls before they made a valiant attemptTilak Varma blasted a 17ball 32 and struck a few big hits off Harshit Rana to make it 41 off 12 balls and Naman Dhir hammered a sixball 17 to take MI needing 22 from the last six ballsSkipper Shreyas Iyer turned to pacer Harshit Rana to bowl the final over instead of the more experienced Mitchell Starc and his decision worked as Rana made a fine comeback and bowled a brilliant final overNaman Dhir was out for 17 off six on the first ball A delivery later Harshit Rana got Varma with extra bounce as an attempted slap over point went behind to keeper Salt and Mumbai Indians eventually finished with 1398 in 16 overs and fell short by 18 runsOn a wicket on which the ball was gripping and rising a bit Mumbai fettered away the good start as they lost their way around in the middle overs failing to get the better of KKR spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil NarineKishan who struck successive fours off and followed that up with a six off the final ball of the fourth over bowled by Harshit Rana switchhit Sunil Narine for a boundary and a six off successive balls to round off the PowerplayNarine got the breakthrough for KKR when he outfoxed Kishan with a faster carrom ball and the batter hit it straight to Ramandeep Singh This was his 550th wicket in T20 cricketChakravarthy sent back Rohit and Hardik and Russell got Suryakumar Yadav and Tim David SKYs wicket proved to be the turning point as he was capable of singlehandedly leading Mumbai to victory as he did by scoring a century in their match against SRH a few days agoEarlier Mumbai Indians got early success as Newan Thushara accounted for opener Phil Salt after the England batter had carted him for a six off the first ball Thushara adjusted his length slowed it down a bit and Salt skied it to Anshul Kamboj at fine leg for six off five deliveriesJasprit Bumrah sent back the dangerous Sunil Narine for a duck off his first ball of the match a brilliant inswinging yorker that started wide swerved late and disturbed the stumpsSkipper Shreyas Iyer 7 was the next to go bowled by Anshul Kamboj for 7 off 10 balls walking too far across even before the ball was releasedJust when it looked like Mumbai were on top and will add to their misery Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana scriped a fine rescue raising a 37run partnership for the fourth wicket for the fourth wicket partnershipBoth of them struck some fine shots including scoring 15 off Bumrahs second over with Venkatesh Iyer hammering two fours and a six in the fourth over as the Mumbai Indians bowlers missed a few tricks and failed to maintain the pressureVenkatesh who top scored with 70 when KKR took on MI in the reverse fixture at the Wankhede helping the team win its first match at the Wankhede in 12 years blasted a 21ball 42 hitting six boundaries and two maximums before he holed out to longoff on the bowling of Piyush Chawla and Suryakumar Yadav took it around chest highRana back into the side after missing a few matches and Andre Russell raised 39 runs for the fifth wicket partnership scoring more freely as the Mumbai Indians bowlers bowled fuller lengths and in the range for the batters to swing their arms Rana who got a lbw decision overturned on DRS as the ball was narrowly missing the stumps hammered Hardik Pandya for a four and six off successive balls struck Bumrah for two fours in the 12th over before eas caught short of the crease at nonstrikers end by a brilliant effort by Tilak VarmaRussell chanced his arms as was expected of him and played a brief cameo of 14ball 24 before holing out to Kamboj off ChawlaRinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh struck a couple of big shots towards the end as Mumbai Indians pulled things back a bit to restrict KKR who were cruising towards 170180 at one juncture Rinku was out to Bumrah in the final over before Ramandeep Singh blasted a six off Bumrahs final delivery to help them reach a commanding 1577 in 16 oversBrief scoresKolkata Knight Riders 1577 in 16 overs Venkatesh Iyer 42 Nitish Rana 33 Piyush Chawla 228 Jasprit Bumrah 239 beat Mumbai Indians 1398 in 16 overs Ishan Kishan 40 Tilak Varma 32 Varun Chakravarthy 217 Harshit Rana 234 Andre Russell 234 by 18 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no 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