IPL 2017, Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians: MI's plan to counter Narine is SK play of the day

It was a great opportunity for Kolkata Knight Riders to move to the second position on the table for two bites of the cherry. Instead, KKR made a meal of the chase on their home ground, ending up in the third position and will now have to play the eliminator against the winner of the KXIP v RPS game.

They have every reason to be disappointed but for a change, they didn’t get the kind of start that they had been getting all season.

The context

Batting first after losing the toss, Mumbai Indians managed to score 173 off their 20 overs. That was largely because of two batsmen who had missed out most of the season. Saurabh Tiwary scored a half-century in his first game of this season while Ambati Rayudu, recovering from an injury recently, scored a 37-ball 63 in the middle order to give MI the push they needed.

The 61-run partnership between Rayudu and Tiwary proved to be crucial for MI who amassed 43 runs in the last 4 overs. However, 173 seemed to be an achievable target for KKR, whose top 4 have been sensational this season.

The play of the day

Sunil Narine has been bludgeoning the ball all season, having scored 214 runs for KKR at a strike-rate of 178.33 with 34 fours and 9 sixes. They owe a large part of their success to his flamboyant batting at the top and a large part of his success was because of the driving length that bowlers have been feeding him with right through.

Mumbai Indians clearly seemed to have a plan against him and that worked like a charm for them.

Tim Southee, bowling the first over of the second innings, started with an in-swinging yorker, before bowling two short deliveries. On the fourth delivery, he gave Narine another back of a length delivery that was stuck in the pitch and came out much slower. That was because of how he had rolled his fingers over the ball.

The slower bouncer got the better of the pinch-hitter, climbing awkwardly on the off-stump line. Narine was ungainly as he backed away and tried to smash the ball over mid-off, only to edge it high over extra cover where Hardik Pandya took a neat catch. Narine was out without scoring a run. Southee completed his wicket-maiden – a rarity in T20 cricket.

The impact

The wicket of Narine was the kind of start that MI wanted, putting KKR under pressure early. While KKR managed to score quickly, they lost too many wickets in the powerplay, ending it at 53 for 3. Losing Chris Lynn in the second ball of the 7^th over put them into deeper trouble and while Pandey tried to stitch a partnership with Colin Grandhomme, KKR eventually fell short by 9 runs.

It was obvious that Mahela, the MI coach, had used all his experience to come up with tactics that kept KKR’s famed opening pair quiet. Rayudu, who had kept wickets as well, won the Player of the Match, for his half-century.