Quinton de Kock delivered an impressive performance as he guided Mumbai Indians to a massive eight-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Friday.
Quinton de Kock played an unbeaten knock of 78 runs off 44 balls to help Mumbai Indians chase down a decent target of 149 runs, set by KKR. Chasing the target, Mumbai Indians got off to a brilliant start as openers Rohit Sharma and de Kock struck regular boundaries. Both took the team over the 50-run mark in the sixth over. Continuing the impressive form, de Kock went on to score his half-century off just 25 deliveries.
Their 94- run partnership was brought to an end by Shivam Mavi as the pacer got hold of Sharma, who was caught behind after scoring 35 runs. Suryakumar Yadav then came out to bat but failed to impress as Varun Chakravarthy bowled him in the 14th over.
Hardik Pandya was the next batsman and he, along with de Kock, easily took Mumbai Indians over the line in the 17th over. Earlier, Pat Cummins’ gutsy half-century and skipper Eoin Morgan cautious knock of 39 runs helped KKR post 148 runs after witnessing a bad start against Mumbai Indians. KKR collapsed from 33/1 to 61/5 in five overs.
However, Cummins and Morgan rebuilt KKR’s innings stitching an unbeaten 87-run stand for the sixth wicket. The duo smashed 14 runs in the penultimate and 21 runs in the final over to help KKR post a respectable total in the 20 overs. KKR got off to a bad start after opting to bat first, courtesy Suryakumar Yadav fielding which sent opening batsman Rahul Tripathi back in the dugout in the third over.
Suryakumar took an absolute blinder at the point as Rahul tried to cut Trent Boult for four. Nitish Rana then joined Shubman Gill in the middle and the duo stitched a brief 15 run stand before Nathan Coulter-Nile dismissed Rana in the sixth over. Cummins also smashed his maiden IPL half-century as KKR posted 148 runs in their allotted 20 overs.
Brief score: Mumbai Indians 149/2 [Quinton de Kock 78* (44), Rohit Sharma 35 (36), Varun Chakravarthy 1-23] defeated KKR 148/5 [Pat Cummins 53* (36), Eoin Morgan 39* (29), Rahul Chahar 2-18] by eight wickets.