STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsDespite a herculean effort from Mumbai Indians ace paceman Jasprit Bumrah, Mumbai still found a way to slump against Kolkata Knight Riders. This literally sums up their horrendous season.
A master-class bowling in the slog overs
At the start of the 18th over, Kolkata were in a good position (156/5) with five wickets in hand and were looking good for a 170+ total at least, considering two overs were left of Bumrah.
But, the star bowler had other thoughts. On the first ball of the 18th, Bumrah bagged the wicket of Sheldon Jackson. Two balls later, he bounced out Pat Cummins, who had scored a 14-ball record fifty against the same team in the reverse fixture. Then he followed it up by the wicket of Sunil Narine in the fourth. He bagged three wickets in one over without conceding a run. By virtue of it, he became the fifth bowler in the IPL to bowl a triple-wicket maiden over. The other one of the five also came this year and Umran Malik for Hyderabad against Punjab was the one.
To add more on his master-class bowling, in overs between 18-20, Bumrah conceded a solitary run off the last ball of the innings. In the history of T20s, he became the second bowler after Tom Curran for England Lions against Pakistan A in 2015, to concede only one run after bowling two out of the last three overs of an innings.
Bumrah’s brilliance
In an innings in which, five out of the six bowlers conceded over 6.5 runs per over and out of the five four had leaked runs at an economy of 8.5 and over, there was one bowler who bowled a triple-wicket maiden and then went on to bag a five-for.
Bumrah was a class-apart today among the Mumbai bowlers. He bagged his first ever five-wicket haul in T20s and ended the spell at an economy of 2.5. His bowling figures of 5/10 against Kolkata is the second-best spell by an Indian bowler. In addition, his four-over spell consisted of 18 dot balls, out of which 11 came in the last three overs. The 18 dot balls are the joint most for a Mumbai bowler in an innings, leveling his own record Rajasthan Royals in 2021.
A herculean effort in vain
All good things must come to an end, but Bumrah’s valiant effort came to an end very shortly. By virtue of his brilliant spell, Mumbai were able to cut short 20 runs at least. However, due to the lack of support from Mumbai’s batters, his spell went in vain.
In the history of IPL, only one bowler had a better spell in a losing cause. Adam Zampa for the now-defunct Rising Pune Super Giants, had a match figures of 6/19 against Hyderabad in Visakhapatnam.
Mumbai’s season has gone bad to worse
It has been that kind of a season for the five-time champions, where everything has gone south. Their skipper Rohit Sharma has endured a torrid run. An injury for Suryakumar Yadav has exposed Mumbai’s batting department and their prime finisher Kieron Pollard, is struggling to bat on ball.
In the bowling department, apart from Bumrah, rest of the bowlers have been hot and cold. As a result of this, Mumbai are at the bottom of the table with nine losses in 11 matches. In the IPL, the nine losses in IPL 2022, is the most for them in a season. Prior to this, across three editions (2008, 2014 & 2018), Mumbai had eight losses.
The all-round Russell
In a season where Kolkata have blown hot and cold, Andre Russell has been their most impactful player. The all-rounder has scored 281 runs at a strike rate in excess of 180 and has averaged 35.1 with the bat and has picked up 14 wickets at a balls/dismissal ratio of 9.1.
This is the fourth IPL season in which Russell has scored 250+ runs and picked up 10+ wickets for Kolkata. No other player has achieved this double in more seasons than Russell. Jacques Kallis in 2010, 12 & 13, had scored 250+ and bagged 10+ wickets.
Kolkata make a flurry of changes
Throughout the season, one of the reasons for Kolkata’s rather poor run has been their chip and chop policy. In the entire season, they have made 22 changes to their side. In this match alone, they made five changes.
In an IPL season, this the third time they are making five changes from their previous match. In 2010 against Punjab Kings (Kings XI Punjab then) and in 2013 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, are the other two seasons in which they had made five changes from their previous match.
