What happened the last time KKR played MI at Eden Gardens, Kolkata?

Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Mumbai Indians in the 60th match of IPL 2024 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, May 11. These two teams have had contrasting fortunes in the league this season.

While KKR have all but qualified for the playoffs this season and appear to be among the favorites to aim for the title, MI have been knocked out of the race and will have to contend for a spot in the bottom half.

This game will give KKR an excellent opportunity to showcase their wares in front of their fans at Eden Gardens and gain momentum in the lead-up to the playoffs. For MI, it will be a battle mostly for pride.

When the two teams met earlier this season at the Wankhede in Mumbai, Kolkata Knight Riders were able to defeat their opponents by 24 runs and will be keen on repeating the same on Saturday as well.

However, it has to be remembered that the last time MI played at this venue against KKR was way back in the 2019 season of the IPL in a game that they lost by a whopping margin of 34 runs.

Mumbai Indians, however, have won seven of the last 10 matchups in the city of joy. This will give a big boost to their psychological advantage; they also have a 23-10 lead in the head-to-head rivalry.

In the 2019 season, when MI traveled to take on KKR in Kolkata, the hosts batted first and put up a massive total of 232-2 on the board at the end of their twenty overs thanks to half-centuries from Shubman Gill, Andre Russell, and Chris Lynn.

While Gill and Lynn got KKR off to a splendid start and departed for 76 and 54 respectively, Russell came in at three and batted till the end to remain unbeaten on 80, with then-skipper Dinesh Karthik assisting with 11 not out.

Hardik Pandya was the star for MI in 2019

In response, MI did not have the best of starts as they lost their star opener-wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock for a duck in just the second over to Sunil Narine. Skipper Rohit Sharma too did not last long.

No sooner than the entire MI batting order seemed to be on the verge of crumbling with inconsistent cameos from their middle order than current captain Hardik Pandya put his hand up to take the responsibility.

He batted exquisitely and put the KKR bowlers to the sword to score 91 runs off just 34 deliveries. His innings, laced with nine sixes and six boundaries, however, was not enough to see his team through.

After Hardik fell in the eighteenth over to Harry Gurney, the MI chase was fluffed out even though they remained distant from scoring the winning runs. As mentioned earlier, they fell short by 34 runs.