IPL 2018: Shah Rukh Khan Apologises To Fans After Kolkata Knight Riders Heavy Defeat To Mumbai Indians

Kolkata Knight Riders’ season is fast turning out to be a forgettable one. Inconsistency has been Kolkata’s nemesis this season and they are now on the verge of getting eliminated from the league stage. The Dinesh Karthik led-side was comfortably placed in the top four after they won 5 out of 9 games.

However, two consecutive defeats against defending champions Mumbai Indians in a space of fours days have all but derailed their campaign. The Knight Riders now need to win their remaining three games to make it to the last four. On Wednesday (May 10), they suffered a crushing 102-run defeat to drop out of top four. Barring the toss, nothing went Knight Riders’ way as they suffered their eighth consecutive defeat against Mumbai.

The two-time IPL champions never looked in contention to chase down a huge 210.  They lost wickets at regular intervals and were 72 for 6 at the end of the tenth over.

Sunil Narine failed to fire at the top. Kolkata’s hopes of getting a good platform then took another blow when Chris Lynn was run out for 21. Robin Uthappa and Andre Russell also failed to get going as Kolkata were reduced to 54 for 4. Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana then departed off successive balls to leave their side reeling at 67 for 6. Wickets kept on falling at regular intervals. The lower-order tried to delay the inevitable for a while before the hosts were bundled up for a paltry 108.

Earlier in the game, Ishan Kishan’s whirlwind half-century propelled Mumbai Indians to a massive 210 for 6 in the allotted 20 overs. The southpaw scored 62 off just 21 balls to guide the defending champions to the huge total.

Asked to bat first, the visitors were off to a decent start with Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis adding 46 runs for the first wicket. The Knight Riders sent back both the openers in quick succession but Ishan and Rohit Sharma did not let the hosts capitalise on it. The duo added 82 runs for the third wicket to lay the foundation for a huge total. The wicketkeeper-batsman reached his fifty off just 17 balls. Ishan took a liking for Kuldeep Yadav’s bowling, hitting him for four successive sixes.

Towards the end, Ben Cutting played the perfect cameo to help Mumbai finish off strongly. The Australian scored a 9-ball 24 to give the finishing touch.

It was a defeat that can well cost Kolkata the entire season. In fact, the performance was so appalling and poor that Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan took to Twitter to apologise to the fans.

“Sports is about the spirit & wins/losses don’t reflect that. But tonite as the ‘Boss’ I need to apologise to the fans for the lack of spirit”

Sports is about the spirit & wins/losses don’t reflect that. But tonite as the ‘Boss’ I need to apologise to the fans for the lack of spirit

— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) May 9, 2018