Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs in Abu Dhabi to bag their first win in seven IPL games in the UAE. It was a one-sided contest with Mumbai having a firm grip on the match throughout. Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah were the architects of this victory for the defending champions. Rohit for his belligerent knock was awarded the Man of the Match. The head to head tally between the two teams now reads 20-6 in Mumbai’s favor. Meanwhile, KKR lost their opening game in an IPL season for the first time since 2013.

Earlier, the KKR openers, Shubman Gill and Sunil Narine failed to get going as well as they added only 14 for the first wickets. Karthik added a 46-run stand with Nitish Rana (24) for the third wicket, but other than that there was no sizeable contribution with the bat. However, it was Jasprit Bumrah who delivered the killer blow to KKR dismissing both Russell and Morgan in the 16th over, dashing all hopes of a win. However, it has to be said that KKR had already lost the game well before the arrival of Russell with the asking rate over 15 all the while.

Also Read: “Plan Was To Be Ruthless,” MI Skipper Rohit Sharma After Win Against KKR

Knights Middle Order Fails to Fire

Chasing 196 to win, the much-famed KKR middle-order failed to get the team even close to the target. Dinesh Karthik (30), Eoin Morgan (16) and Andre Russell (11) failed to fire in unison as KKR started their IPL 2020 campaign with a defeat. Pat Cummins struck some lusty blows lower down the order as he scored 33 off 12 balls to cover up for his expensive spell early on.

Meanwhile, earlier in the game, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and asked Mumbai Indians to bat first, a decision which backfired big time. Rohit Sharma scored 80 off 54 balls as he kept his love affair with KKR going. He hit as many as six sixes in his knock and became the second Indian batsman to hit 200 sixes in the IPL after MS Dhoni.

Tough Day for KKR Bowlers

It was a tough game for the KKR bowlers, who fed off bouncers to Rohit, who was hitting them for fun. It was a bad day for the pacers especially since they travelled all over the Zayed stadium. Pat Cummins went for 49 from his 3, while Sandeep Warrier went for 34 off his 3. Kuldeep Yadav too leaked almost 20 runs per over in his spell.

KKR needs to get their act together before they face Sunrisers Hyderabad in their next game in Abu Dhabi on September 26. Mumbai face RCB in Dubai on September 28.

Also Read: Dinesh Karthik Laments Poor All-Round Performance As The Reason Behind Their Loss