That’s all from me. It’s been a thrill. Bye!
Mumbai Indians move fourth with that win, with a single game to play.
“Our bowling and our fielding was not up to the mark,” says Gautam Gambhir. “We shouldn’t have let them score 170. It was not a great effort. We needed to be a bit more clever when we were bowling in the death overs.”
What an over, from a player who hadn’t bowled at all until that moment! Piyush Chawla faced seven balls, scored one run, and generally wielded his bat with a combination of poor match awareness, ludicrous overenthusiasm and rank bad timing.
Play offs are ON! #ApunKaSuperstar #MI
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 14, 2015
Updated
Mumbai Indians win by five runs!
20th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 166-7 (Chawla 1, U Yadav 5)
Another dot ball! Chawla misses it yet again, and Mumbai Indians win!
19.5 overs: Kolkata Knight Riders 166-7 (Chawla 1, U Yadav 5)
Instant replay! Another slower ball, another swing, another miss, another dot! Kolkata need to hit the final ball for six!
19.4 overs: Kolkata Knight Riders 166-7 (Chawla 1, U Yadav 5)
Dot ball! Chawla swings at a slower ball and misses it completely!
19.3 overs: Kolkata Knight Riders 166-7 (Chawla 1, U Yadav 5)
A wide! Kolkata need six from the last three!
19.3 overs: Kolkata Knight Riders 165-7 (Chawla 1, U Yadav 5)
Single, sent bouncing to mid on.
19.2 overs: Kolkata Knight Riders 164-7 (Chawla 1, U Yadav 4)
Incredible! Misdfield from Malinga, who should have stopped the ball for the loss of one run, but misses it and Kolkata have four!
Updated
WICKET! Pathan c P Patel b Pollard 52 (Kolkata Knight Riders 160-7)
And he gets the wicket first ball! Pathan goes for a massive pull, gets a top edge and the ball flies into the air and down into a fielder’s waiting paws!
19th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 160-6 (Pathan 52, Chawla 1)
Malinga starts with a yorker, as the Wankhede simmers with tension and noise. Then a slower delivery, and Chawla tries to give it both barrels and actually gives it no barrels at all, his wild swing being complete before the ball’s anywhere near him. Then another slower ball, this one confusing both batsman and Parthiv Patel behind the stumps, who doesn’t hold the ball, allowing the batsmen to sprint a bye. Pathan smashes the next over midwicket for six, then gets a single. Chawla faces one more delivery, and he totally misses that one too – that’s three faces in this over, and three missed. Still, it means Pathan’s on strike for the final over. Kolkata need 12 runs from it! Kieran Pollard will bowl it!
18th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 151-6 (Pathan 44, Chawla 1)
This match was on a knife edge as this innings began, and it’s still on a knife edge with two overs to play, with Malinga to bowl one of them. Pathan gets a four by cutting wide of the short third man, but this is not the over KKR were dreaming of, and it ends with a decent pull from Pathan being brilliantly fielded by Rayudu to not only prevent a four, but to rapidly return the ball to the wicket. 21 needed from the last two overs, at … well … you do the maths.
WICKET! Yadav c Rayudu b McClenaghan 11 (Kolkata Knight Riders 144-6)
McClenaghan’s final over starts with a wicket! Yadav flicks it into the air to deep midwicket, who takes the catch safely a couple of yards from the rope!
17th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 144-5 (Pathan 38, S Yadav 11)
Vinay Kumar bowls, and Pathan hammers his first delivery past a diving fielder at extra cover for four. He then takes a single, and Yadav tickles the next – a useless, wide delivery – past a short third man for four, and sends the one after that – also much too wide – over backward point for another! Kolkata need 28 runs, at 9.33 an over.
16th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 130-5 (Pathan 33, S Yadav 2)
Malinga returns, and Pathan hits the straightest of straight drives, right over the stumps and a rapidly-ducking umpire and away for four. Then he tries to hook a short one and top-edges it high in the air, the ball falling safely into space. And again, immediately after the chance, the wicket. A time out follows, leaving a single delivery to be bowled after it, a full toss which Pathan diverts just over the head of the man at midwicket.
Updated
WICKET! Russell c P Patel b Malinga 2 (Kolkata Knight Riders 122-5)
A full delivery tempts Russell to drive, and he gets the slightest top edge that’s taken low behind the stumps!
15th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 122-4 (Pathan 28, Russell 1)
Shakib pulls away Vinay Kumar’s first delivery with no great power and runs two, just, diving to escape a run-out. As with Gambhir, though, a near-miss is immediately followed by an actual dismissal. Russell’s first delivery turns out to be a lovely yorker, which he does well to score nothing from. 50 runs needed, at precisely 10 an over.
WICKET! Shakib c Pandya b Kumar 23 (Kolkata Knight Raiders 118-4)
An excellent if brief innings comes to an end as Shakib tries to clear midwicket but miscues, and Pandya takes the catch!
14th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 115-3 (Pathan 25, Shakib 21)
Mitchell McClenaghan’s back, and his bowling is flayed all round the ground – though almost always, magically, close enough to fielders, though Shaqib does pull past square leg for a fine, brutal four. Mitch also bowls two wides, one for a slower bouncer that Pathan just ignores, the bowler looking the very opposite of gruntled when the umpire extends his arms. 56 runs needed now, at 9.33 an over.
13th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 106-3 (Pathan 23, Shakib 15)
Pandya bowls for the first time, and Shakib cuts his first delivery very nicely for four, and then pulls the next, very nearly finding the boundary again but, well, not finding it, and getting two runs instead. Still, a couple of singles and two more to deep midwicket later, Kolkata have scored the 10 runs they needed from that over. 66 runs required, at 9.43 an over.
12th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 96-3 (Pathan 22, Shakib 6)
Harbhajan bowls and Shakib edges well past the solitary slip and away for four to get off the mark, while the other four runs are all singles. KKR need 76 runs, with 48 balls remaining, at 9.5 runs an over.
11th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 88-3 (Pathan 21, Shakib 0)
Yusuf Pathan goes down on one knee to pummel Suchith’s second delivery over long off for a brawny six, and a single later Gambir sends the ball to a very similar spot, this time the ball bouncing a yard before the rope. And then he’s dropped! Gambir chips the ball to deep midwicket, and it’s an easy catch for Pandya, but it slips into his hands and straight back out again! Turns out, though, that it didn’t much matter.
WICKET! Gambhir b Suchith 38 (Kolkata 88-3)
Gambir is hideously, awfully and embarrassingly dropped, a fact that may be in his mind when he trots down the track to the very next delivery, misses it and is bowled!
10th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 74-2 (Gambhir 31, Pathan 13)
Gambhir shows he wasn’t distracted by the time out by cutting Harbhajan for four as soon as play resumes. Then a couple of singles later he cuts again, in the air this time, and it lands just short of the fielder at short third man.
9th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 67-2 (Gambhir 25, Pathan 12)
Suchith bowls from the Pavilion End, and Pathan smears the ball to deep extra cover, where Pollard tries to catch it, low, diving forward, gets just a finger to the ball and ends up with a sore finger, while Kolkata get four runs.
8th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 58-2 (Gambhir 21, Pathan 7)
Harbhajan, whose first over was a veritable drama-magnet, continues, and despite two wides is almost entirely drama free. There are two singles, and when ball is hit to Simmons again this time the batsmen decide not to try their luck.
7th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 54-2 (Gambhir 20, Pathan 6)
Vinay Kumar’s back, and his second over yields four singles. In other cricket news, England today named their squad for the Test series against New Zealand.
6th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 50-2 (Gambhir 18, Pathan 4)
Harbhajan bowls and … whoosh! Uthappa sweeps his first delivery over midwicket for six! They were to prove his last, and we then have two dismissals in three deliveries before Pathan ends the over with four, cut past point.
WICKET! Pandey run out (Simmons) 1 (Kolkata 46-2)
That’s good fielding, and Pandey’s gone after one ball! Gambhir hit the ball to fine leg, Pandey called for the single, and when Simmons hit the stumps he always looked gone, and despite a desperate dive, he was.
3rd umpire says Pandya is out and Wankhede erupts! #ApunKaSuperstar #MI pic.twitter.com/sz4WlMJ9cx
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 14, 2015
Updated
WICKET! Uthappa c Malinga b Harbhajan 25 (Kolkata 45-1)
The breakthrough! Uthappa nicks the ball to Malinga at short fine leg, who doesn’t catch the ball cleanly, but does catch it eventually. The next time he’s caught on screen, notably, he’s drying his hands on a towel.
5th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 38-0 (Uthappa 19, Gambhir 18)
Uthappa thumps McClenaghan’s delivery wide of long on for four, and then takes an ambitious single to point – Suchith tries to throw down the stumps at the bowler’s end and only just misses, with Uthappa probably short. The over also features a viciously bouncy bouncer, signalled a wide and rather excellently caught high by Parthiv behind the stumps.
4th over: Kolkata Knight Riders 29-0 (Uthappa 13, Gambhir 16)
Vinay Kumar bowls over the wicket to Gambhir, who attacks and drives over cover for four. He switches to round the wicket. A single later Uthappa has a go at moving forward and attacking the ball, only he misses it entirely, and is extraordinarily fortunate to see it bounce just over the stumps. The next is hoiked over midwicket, the ball landing two inches short of the rope.
3rd over: Kolkata Knight Riders 20-0 (Uthappa 9, Gambhir 11)
Malinga drops an attempted yorker a fraction short, and Gambhir flicks it off his ankles and past square leg for four. Fine shot.
2nd over: Kolkata Knight Riders 12-0 (Uthappa 8, Gambhir 4)
Mitchell McClenaghan trundles in from t’other end, and Gambhir gets off the mark with a smart cut for four, just past a diving Pollard. At the end of the over, Uthappa switches bats. There didn’t seem much wrong with the first one.
1st over: Kolkata Knight Riders 7-0 (Uthappa 7, Gambhir 0)
Lasith Malinga bowls the first over, at Uthappa slips the first to third man for a couple, and pumps the next over midwicket for four. It improves from there, though, with a nice slower ball – quite a lot slower – along the way.
The #Knights have their task cutout! 172 needed off 120... They are up for the challenge! Game On @mipaltan ! pic.twitter.com/T2ZybPvgMf
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 14, 2015
The players stroll back out. Mumbai got a decent total in the end, and the likes of Malinga and Harbhajan can make runscoring difficult. It seems finely balanced, as of this moment.
A brilliant and necessary innings from Pandya. With 10 overs to go this was looking like a procession for Kolkata, and maybe this could be interesting after all …
Updated
20th over: Mumbai Indians 171-4 (Pollard 33, Pandya 61)
Umesh Yadav bowls the final over, and starts it with a rank full toss that’s scooped one-handed over point for four. The bowler follows that with an even worse delivery – also a full toss, but he overstepped, so it’s a no ball and a free hit. This one, however, Pandya can’t take advantage of, edging to third man and running a single. The over massively improves from there, the ball repeatedly pitched full, and though it ends with another full toss Pollard can’t really capitalise.
19th over: Mumbai Indians 158-4 (Pollard 29, Pandya 53)
Russell bowls the penultimate over, and Pandya keeps scoring. He survives an accidental beamer, thumps just over both cover and extra cover, who both spin and give chase but to no avail, top-edges a short ball for four more, and then pulls high, high over midwicket for six. The last four overs have gone for 13, 18, 11 and 17 runs.
18th over: Mumbai Indians 141-4 (Pollard 28, Pandya 38)
Narine continues, and Pandya thumps his first delivery in the air towards long on, but it bounces just in front of Surya Yadav. A few singles later Pandya thunders a full delivery over long on for six. The next goes down the leg side; Uthappa collects and whips off the bails, leading to an extended break while the TV umpire sees if Pandya’s foot was grounded at the time and enjoys the experience so much he asks to see it another dozen times for no apparent reason before declaring him not out.
17th over: Mumbai Indians 130-4 (Pollard 26, Pandya 30)
Umesh Yadav returns, and after a Pollard single Pandya clubs it through midwicket for four, perfectly bisecting two deep fielders. He gets a four off the next as well, deflecting to third man, who got his full body behind the ball but then decided not to actually look at it, and it deflects off his body into the rope. He tries to pull the next but inside-edges into the ground, past his stumps and the ball trundles away for a third consecutive boundary. The last two of them owed a lot to luck, but the fourth owes everything to useless bowling – the ball is short and wide, and needs only to be deflected to backward point for another four. Add a single from the last and that’s an 18-run over, and Pandya has overtaken Pollard having faced just over half as many deliveries (17 to 32).
16th over: Mumbai Indians 112-4 (Pollard 25, Pandya 13)
So much for it taking a while – Pollard thrashes the first ball of Narine’s third over high over cow corner for six! Narine promptly sends two of his next three deliveries down the leg side, and with five singles also run that’s the most expensive over of the innings so far.
15th over: Mumbai Indians 99-4 (Pollard 16, Pandya 11)
Russell continues, and Pandya deflects his first delivery to the third man boundary, before producing a fine pull that picks out a fielder. Mumbai are on the verge of triple-figures, though Pollard’s on strike, so actually it might take a while.
14th over: Mumbai Indians 91-4 (Pollard 15, Pandya 4)
Shakib returns with his last over, which starts and ends with a dot, the two of them sandwiching four singles and a wide. The innings is dribbling away from Mumbai – Pollard needs to locate his radar sometime nowish.
13th over: Mumbai Indians 86-4 (Pollard 13, Pandya 2)
Sky show a graphic of seam deliveries to Pollard today, and only one has been pitched full, with the very great majority banged in short. The plan has worked – his 13 runs so far have come from 21 balls.
1 - Rohit Sharma has reached 15 in each of his last 10 IPL innings, but has recorded one half-century in these innings. Starts.
— OptaJim (@OptaJim) May 14, 2015
12th over: Mumbai Indians 80-4 (Pollard 9, Pandya 0)
After a couple of singles Rohit cuts beautifully, and Piyush Chawla likes the shot so much he lets it dribble inexplicably past him on the boundary, giving the batsman a couple of bonus runs. They were to be his last, as he’s outfoxed by a cracking delivery next up.
WICKET! Rohit b Narine 30 (Mumbai Indians 79-4)
An excellent innings from Rohit Sharma is curtailed by Sunil Narine, who totally befuddles him with a doosra that goes on to clip the top of off stump!
11th over: Mumbai Indians 73-3 (Rohit 25, Pollard 8)
Another delay between overs, this one to allow for Pollard’s helmet to be tweaked. And it seems to work, with the batsman duly getting his first boundary from a shortish delivery, hoiked over midwicket, though he also allows Andre Russell three dots.
10th over: Mumbai Indians 67-3 (Rohit 24, Pollard 3)
After a time out, Narine comes on. Sharma gets a single from the first, giving Pollard five to face, still on a duck. He defends the first three, though the last of them not so well – it comes off an edge, is misfielded at short third man and he jogs a peaceful two. A single returns Sharma to strike with a single ball left, which he thunders past cover for a bullet four.
9th over: Mumbai Indians 58-3 (Rohit 19, Pollard 0)
More spin now, from Chawla. He elicits a beautiful shot from Sharma, a late cut past backward point for four, and it’s followed by another very different boundary, a delicious sweep for four. A single leaves Pollard with one delivery to face, from which there’s a loud but over-optimistic lbw appeal. He remains on nought, after seven deliveries.
8th over: Mumbai Indians 50-3 (Rohit 10, Pollard 0)
No holding back here – Morkel bowls his final over. The cameras miss a fair amount of it, while Sachin Tendulkar and the actor Amitabh Bachchan are interviewed pitchside. They picked a decent over to ignore, though – this one was far from action-packed, with just a single and a wide coming from it.
7th over: Mumbai Indians 48-3 (Rohit 9, Pollard 0)
There’s a bit of a delay before the over starts, while Shakib finds something to dry the ball with (he eventually locates a cloth). At this rate Mumbai are going to need a hanky, to dab their teary eyes. Rayudu, who had averaged 33.3 in the IPL before today, gets out, and Pollard bats out the last couple of deliveries with a slip and a silly point in place.
WICKET! Rayudu c Russell b Shakib 2 (Mumbai Indians 47-3)
Well that’s puzzling shot selection, in the circumstances. Rayudu goes big, recklessly, foolishly big, and miscues the ball into the hands of Russell at deep extra cover. Too many wickets are falling here – Mumbai need a partnership, sharpish.
6th over: Mumbai Indians 46-2 (Rohit 7, Rayadu 2)
Morkel keeps going, and Sharma takes a single from the first ball. The biggest crowd cheer of the over comes when Morkel oversteps, giving Mumbai their first bonus run of the innings (a second comes from a wide later in the over), and a free hit by way of a bonus, which Simmons hits down the ground for the final, pre-dismissal six.
WICKET! Simmons c Pandey b Morkel 14 (Mumbai Indians 42-2)
Simmons, fresh from hitting the previous delivery for six, deflects the next way up into the air off a top edge, and Pandey takes his second catch of the evening at point.
5th over: Mumbai Indians 34-1 (Simmons 8, Rohit 5)
Shakib’s second over starts just like the first, up to a point. Again his first delivery is attacked by the batsman, but this time he actually hit it, and away it went past mid off for four. Patel, however, is out next ball. Rohit Sharma comes in at No3, and after a couple of dots he cuts away for four.
WICKET! Patel c Pandey b Shakib 21 (Mumbai Indians 29-1)
Well he wasn’t dropped that time! Parthiv Patel tries to clear the fielder at deep midwicket – or just didn’t know there was anyone at deep midwicket – and is caught there instead.
4th over: Mumbai Indians 25-0 (Simmons 8, Patel 17)
Patel runs two from the first, and then hoiks Morkel’s second delivery over cover for four. But two balls later he’s dropped, after flicking a shortish delivery to fine leg, where Yadav was waiting and primed. He brings out his right hand and the ball plops into the meat of it and then plops back out again!
Dances down the track and CRACK! Launches it over cover. Super shot Parthiv #ApunKaSuperstar #MI
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 14, 2015
3rd over: Mumbai Indians 16-0 (Simmons 8, Patel 8)
Shakib brings the spin for the third over. The Wankhede is a constant swirl of irritating vuvuzela noise, sounding like a swarm of wasps generated by an early-80s computer. Simmons advances to the first delivery and misses it, but Uthappa bungles a potential stumping chance. The first five deliveries yield just two runs, as Patel fails to capitalise on a few hittable deliveries, but then Simmons makes up for it, spearing the last past point for four.
Updated
2nd over: Mumbai Indians 10-0 (Simmons 3, Patel 7)
Simmons isn’t looking very fluent yet, and he takes a couple of deliveries to acclimatise to Morkel’s bowling before mishitting one to mid-on, one of four singles from the over.
1st over: Mumbai Indians 6-0 (Simmons 1, Patel 5)
Umesh Yadav bowls the first over, and after a couple of dots a bit of a misfield at short cover helps Simmons get off the mark with a single. And then there’s a bit more charity in the deep as Parthiv Patel works the ball to deep backward point, where Morkel stops it, diverts it into his back leg, and starts it again, backheeling it into the rope.
Sloppy work by Morne. Couldn't stop that for four. Helped it on, in fact! #MIvsKKR #KKR
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 14, 2015
Updated
Action very much imminent, with the players heading out as I type. Deep breath now …
Here’s Kolkata’s full line-up:
Here's the Playing XI for tonight's game! This is surely gonna be a thriller! Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo! #Go4More #MIvsKKR pic.twitter.com/WmECEfcQUR
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 14, 2015
Meanwhile, here’s Kolkata’s pre-match tweet, in which they warn Mumbai that “Brad Hogg is coming to get you!”. Within half an hour it transpires that Brad Hogg has been dropped. Johan Botha also drops out, with Shakib and Morne Morkel coming in.
Watch out MI! @Brad_Hogg is coming to get you! Knock knock knockin'! https://t.co/C3TlxzrxYe
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 14, 2015
Here’s some team news from Mumbai Indians:
Just one change going into this crucial match. @Vinay_Kumar_R replaces Bumrah. #MI are batting 1st. #ApunKaSuperstar pic.twitter.com/WwYGG1hhqo
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 14, 2015
Updated
KKR win the toss and will field first
Mumbai, having fielded first in their last three games, will don pad and wield bat at the start of this one.
Hello world!
So, here we are at the business end of the season, the last-but-five game of the group stage, with the standings looking like this:
Kolkata Knight Riders would be certain of a play-off place should they win today, while Mumbai would move joint third with victory – still very much in the mix with one more game to play, at the current third-place side, Sunrisers Hyderabad, on Sunday (KKR can do them a favour if they win their final game, against Rajasthan Royals, who like Hyderabad have 14 points at present, on Saturday). The home side may look like an outside bet at present, though their form – four wins out of five, though they lost the last to Royal Challengers Bangalore after their bowlers got duffed up by AB de Villiers) – suggests it wouldn’t be altogether wise to bet against them.
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