IPL 2018 Report Card: Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya impress in Mumbai win; Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav fail for Kolkata

Mumbai Indians (MI) kept their playoff hopes alive with a thrilling 13-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at their home ground on Sunday. The tone of the match was set by the two Mumbai openers, Suryakumar Yadav and Evin Lewis, with a 91-run stand after Kolkata skipper Dinesh Karthik won the toss and opted to field. [caption id=“attachment_4458289” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Mumbai Indians defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 13 runs to keep their playoff chances alive. AFP[/caption] Although they lost their way in the middle after Andre Russell got rid of both Suryakumar and Lewis, their innings was once again revived by Hardik Pandya who remained unbeaten on 35 runs off 20 deliveries, pushing the team total to 180/4. The Knight Riders didn’t get the start they wanted as they lost both their openers — Shubman Gill and Chris Lynn — early. However, Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana combined for a partnership of 84 runs and threatened to take the game away from the hosts. But once Mayank Markande got rid of Uthappa, who played a breezy innings of 54 runs, none of the other batsmen could support Karthik. Hardik was once again instrumental with the ball, claiming 2/19 in his four overs as KKR fell shy of Mumbai’s total by 13 runs. Let us now have a look at how all the 22 players fared in the match. Suryakumar Yadav — 10/10 The former Knight Riders’ player continued his rich vein of form with the bat in Mumbai Indians colours as he scored yet another fifty. He continued to impress with his copybook strokeplay, and he stitched a partnership of 91 runs for the opening wicket with Evin Lewis. He departed for an elegant knock of 59 runs off just 39 deliveries in the 15th over of the innings after edging Andre Russell to Dinesh Karthik behind the wickets. Hardik Pandya — 10/10 It was Hardik Pandya’s all-round performance that gave Mumbai the edge in the match. Firstly, it was his valuable innings of unbeaten 35 runs off just 20 deliveries that helped Mumbai post a total of 180. Then, his return of 2/19 off his four overs sealed the deal for Mumbai. Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana were his two victims. He mixed his deliveries and used his variations pretty well to maintain the run-rate was in check as well. Robin Uthappa — 9/10 Robin Uthappa’s 35-ball 54 was full of classy drives, elegant flicks and trademark slog sweeps. Importantly, the experienced right-hander delivered when KKR found themselves in a tricky situation having lost both their openers for just 28 runs inside first four overs. He started slowly and then took the attack to the Mumbai bowlers. He was castled by Mayank Markande, who had earlier dropped the same batsman. Andre Russell — 9/10 Andre Russell made quite an impact on the match, dismissing MI openers Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav in each of his two overs. Those two overs, in which he conceded just 12 runs, shifted the momentum in KKR’s favour. However, he could not make quite the same impact with the bat, falling to Jasprit Bumrah for 9 runs off 10 deliveries. Evin Lewis — 8/10 Evin Lewis has had quite a hot and cold debut IPL season. He has scored couple of blistering 40s so far but has largely disappointed. He came close to scoring a half-century yet again but fell seven runs short of a well-deserved fifty. It was Andre Russell who dismissed him for a well made 43 off just 28 deliveries in the 10th over of the innings. Dinesh Karthik — 7/10 The KKR skipper tried his best to see his team over the line but could not repeat his Nidahas Trophy heroics due to some superb bowling by the Mumbai bowlers. He kept them in the hunt single handedly towards the end as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. He remained unbeaten on 36 runs made off 26 deliveries as KKR fell short by 13 runs. Sunil Narine — 7/10 Narine bowled well once again as he registered bowling figures of 2/35 in his four overs. His victims included Rohit Sharma — who he has dismissed for the sixth time in IPL — and Krunal Pandya who was looking ominous. With bat, he raised the hopes of Kolkata fans, smashing the first ball of the last over from Krunal for a boundary but was dismissed off the next delivery for a contribution of 5 runs to the team total. Nitish Rana — 6/10 Rana conceded 17 runs from his two wicketless overs. He walked out at No 4 with KKR in a tricky situation at 28/2. Rana stitched a partnership of 84 runs for the fourth wicket with Robin Uthappa, contributing 31 runs off just 27 deliveries. Krunal Pandya — 6/10 Krunal’s contributions—14 runs with the bat and 1/29 in three overs with the ball—might not seem to be that impressive when read on the scorecard. However, he bowled a tense last over of the match and held his nerves pretty well to see it through for his team. Kolkata needed 23 runs off the final over and giving the ball to Krunal was probably a gamble from Rohit but Krunal didn’t let his captain down as he conceded just 10 runs and also claimed the wicket of Sunil Narine in that over. Mayank Markande — 6/10 Markande was pretty expensive in his first over but he came back well to claim the wicket of Uthappa who was threatening to take the game away from Mumbai. Incidentally, he was the one who had dropped him earlier in the innings when the batsman was on 4. He registered bowling figures of 3-0-25-1. Mitchell McClenaghan — 6/10 McClenaghan continued his good run with the ball. He bowled decently apart from that one over where he leaked 13 runs and also ended up with the wicket of Chris Lynn on the last delivery. His bowling figures on Sunday read 4-0-30-1, and he relied mainly on back-of-length deliveries. Jasprit Bumrah — 6/10 Bumrah bowled very well although his bowling figures might suggest otherwise. He was unfortunate on occasions as fielders dropped catches off his bowling. Still, the dismissal of Andre Russell at the death was crucial for Mumbai. He registered bowling figures of 4-0-34-1. Mitchell Johnson — 5/10 The former Australia speedster bowled well as compared to previous outings but found no success. Still, he hit the right lengths and kept the batsmen in check after being expensive in his first over. He ended up with bowling figures of 3-0-25-0. Chris Lynn — 4/10 Chris Lynn started off in quite a belligerent way, smashing four boundaries in quick time. He was taking on the attack to Mitchell McClenaghan in the third over of the innings but ended up hitting a short delivery straight to short fine leg to be dismissed for a 13-ball 17. Kuldeep Yadav — 3/10 Kuldeep Yadav couldn’t trouble the batsmen much with his left-arm wrist spin on this pitch. Moreover, his threat was nullified considerably also due to the fact that most of the Mumbai batsmen are good players of spin. He bowled just two overs and conceded 17 runs. Rohit Sharma — 2/10 Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma walked out to bat at No 3 with more than 10 overs to go. He had plenty of time to make an impact on the match with his batting. However, he fell prey to his nemesis Sunil Narine once again for a run-a-ball knock of 11 runs in the 12th over. Shubman Gill — 2/10 The young right-hander was promoted in the batting order following his match-winning fifty in the previous match against CSK. However, he failed to grab his opportunity as he got dismissed trying to heave Hardik Pandya over long off. Although he got dismissed for just 7 runs, credit should be given to him for ensuring a safe catch at the long-on boundary to dismiss Krunal Pandya earlier in the match. JP Duminy — 2/10 The South African all-rounder walked out to bat towards the death at No 6 for MI and could manage only 13 runs off the 11 deliveries he faced in a situation when Mumbai needed more. He also dropped Dinesh Karthik in the 19th over off Bumrah’s bowling, adding to the tension in Mumbai camps. Prasidh Krishna — 1/10 The debutant came into the team with a reputation of being a good bowler at all stages of the game. However, he was taken for 39 runs off his four wicketless overs by the MI batsmen. without any success. Apart from couple of good deliveries that induced thick edges as a result of which the ball flew straight to the boundary behind, Krishna hardly had anything to brag about in this match. Piyush Chawla — 1/10 Piyush Chawla proved to be quite ineffective on this pitch. He couldn’t extract any kind of turn and hence couldn’t trouble any of the batsmen at all. He conceded 35 runs from his three overs, leaking runs at almost 12 runs per over. Ben Cutting — 1/10 Ben Cutting didn’t get an opportunity to show his big hitting skills. However, he was used for two overs and proved to be quite expensive. He leaked 23 runs in his two overs without any success. Ishan Kishan — NA Ishan Kishan didn’t get an opportunity to bat on Sunday, and he got limited opportunities to show his wicketkeeping skills as well. It would be unfair to rate him based on such limited opportunities. Rating chart: 10-9: Excellent, 8-7: Good, 6-5: Average, 4-3: Poor, 2-1: Very poor