Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) pacer Mitchell Starc was absolutely elated after rattling Gerald Coetzee’s stumps and leading his team to a stunning victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 51st match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024). on Friday, May 3 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
The Knight Riders have always struggled to win against Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and at the Wankhede Stadium they had an incredibly poor record, as heading into the match they had recorded just one win over the five-time champions at the venue. the history of the IPL. , which returned in 2012.
However, Kolkata Knight Riders did not let the ghosts of past performances haunt them as they did a decent job while batting first and then were fantastic with the ball in the second innings. Venkatesh Iyer, who won the Player of the Match award, played a brilliant knock of 70 runs to propel his team to a total of 169.
Defending the target, Mitchell Starc picked up 4 wickets while Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell bagged two wickets each to bowl out MI for 145 and register a 24-run win. With the win, KKR ended their losing streak at Wankhede and this was their first win at the venue in 12 long years.
The two-time champions sealed victory in the fifth ball of the 19th over when Mitchell Starc bowled a trademark yorker to smash the stumps of Gerald Coetzee for 8. Starc could not hide his emotions after bowling MI and erupted with an aggressive attack. celebration. The KKR dugout also looked delighted, while Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar looked absolutely thrilled and shared a lovely hug after the win.
Watch: Mitchell Starc and Gautam Gambhir’s celebration after victory
Mitchell Starc with the last wicket for @KKRiders 💪
See the summary at @StarSportsIndia and @JioCinema 💻📱#TATAIPL | #MIvKKR pic.twitter.com/aUz2emSPdV
— Indian Premier League (@IPL) May 3, 2024
Speaking after the match, mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who played a key role in the victory, said they were confident of defending the total despite the dew. He said:
“It is a very good feeling because we have never won at Wankhede in 12 years and it is a great feeling to win here. We were still confident, it was a matter of one wicket. 170 was below average and there was dew in the second innings. but we controlled our emotions and we stick to our plans. [on if it spun in the 2nd innings] “Not much in the second inning because there was dew.”
Varun Chakravarthy revealed that they planned the match against MI extensively and it worked well for them. He also praised Sunil Narine and added that he feels lucky to bowl alongside the West Indies greats. He said:
“We planned this game exhaustively and it worked. They told me the ball was stopping, but when I started throwing, it wouldn’t stop and everything was going well. Sunny is a legend, he’s been throwing the same way for I don’t know when. I I’m glad I’m bowling with him.”
Varun Chakravarthy signed off by calling the victory over MI special. He elaborated:
“This is a very special win because we were down and out in the first innings, the way Pandey and Venkatesh took the game off their shoulders was great. It’s kind of a comeback from the Punjab game when we conceded so many runs. So we said: “Let’s do it.”