Eoin Morgan
Eoin Morgan (Image Credit: Twitter)

Eoin Morgan rotated his bowlers sensationally in the first innings, but Kolkata Knight Riders could not beat the Mumbai Indians, going down by ten runs. Andre Russell’s five-wicket haul within three overs thwarted Mumbai Indians’ hopes of putting up a highly competitive score and managed 152. Later, Nitish Rana scored his second successive fifty masterful fifty; however, his wicket at the wrong time let Mumbai Indians back in the game. Eoin Morgan lamented the mistakes at the end and hopes the team can rectify them moving forward.

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Quinton De Kock departed in the third over as Mumbai Indians made a sedate start after losing the toss. As Rohit Sharma struggled to get going, Suryakumar Yadav produced a stunning batting display, reaching his half-century in 33 balls with an incredible six over deep square leg. After Yadav’s wicket, Mumbai Indians lost steam despite having proven match-winners in their armoury.

We Made Mistakes; Hopefully We Can Iron Them Out: Eoin Morgan
Suryakumar Yadav raises his bat after scoring a fifty. (Credits: Twitter)

Rohit Sharma chopped onto the stumps off Pat Cummins after a scratchy 43 off 32 deliveries. After Suryakumar Yadav’s 56, only the Pandya brothers reached double figures as the Knight Riders’ bowlers emanated some excellent variations in their bowling. Russell’s fifer included wickets of Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Marco Jansen, Rahul Chahar, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill built a solid 72-run stand before leg-spinner Rahul Chahar hit back by dismissing Gill, Rahul Tripathi, and skipper Eoin Morgan. Chahar delivered the key breakthrough of Nitish Rana for 57 in the final ball of his spell, followed by Krunal Pandya removing Shakib Al Hasan. Despite Mumbai Indians offering Andre Russell two reprieves, he could not take the Knight Riders to victory. Masterful bowling spells from Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah towards the end delivered a ten-run win for the defending champions.

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Mumbai are a very good side: Eoin Morgan

We Made Mistakes; Hopefully We Can Iron Them Out: Eoin Morgan
Krunal Pandya claimed 1-13 [Image-IPLT20]
Eoin Morgan underlined that the loss is hard to take as they played well in the first half of the game and the majority of the chase, hoping they could correct their mistakes moving forward. The Irishman conceded that they haven’t followed the approach of an all-out attack or otherwise and thinks the Knight Riders need to be better. As for the pitch, Morgan believes that run-scoring towards the end has proved challenging in Chepauk; however, he credited the Mumbai Indians for playing magnificently.

Yeah it’s disappointing. A lot of the time we played good cricket, certainly the first half and a majority of the chase. We made mistakes, hopefully we can iron them out. Mumbai are a very good side. I think the perfect game is to be able to do both (all-out attack and otherwise) and we’ve managed to do neither in the end. It works for us a majority of the time, but we need to be better. The games that have been played here, it would suggest that there’s a trend (of runscoring getting tough at the end). Mumbai have been performing like this for a long time, that would be something we need to assess.” Eoin Morgan told in the post-match presentation.

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