Knight fall: Sun rise to qualify for playoffs after KKR’s defeat

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets to finish on top of the league table. Mumbai will now take on Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1 to be held in Chennai on Tuesday.

KKR’s defeat helped Sunrisers Hyderabad sneak in to the playoffs on better net run-rate. Sunrisers and KKR finished with 12 points each.

Chasing 134, Mumbai cruised home with four overs to spare. Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 55, while Suryakumar Yadav supported him with a 26-ball 40.

Earlier, Andre Russell failed to deliver when it mattered the most as KKR scored a sub-par 133 for 7.

KKR’s top run-scorer of this IPL, Russell (510 from 13 innings) was dismissed for a first ball duck as the visiting side frittered away a good start to post a modest total after being sent into bat.Openers Chris Lynn (41 off 29 balls) and Shubman Gill (9 off 16 balls) put up 49 runs together in 6.1 overs but KKR suffered a middle-order collapse as Mumbai bowlers made a splendid comeback.

It was left to Robin Uthappa (40 off 47 balls) and Nitish Rana (26 off 13 balls) to stitch a 47-run stand for the fifth wicket to take KKR past the 120-run mark. Lasith Malinga (3/35), Hardik Pandya (2/20) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/31) were the main wicket-takers for the home side.

Lynn and Gill started slowly before they started playing their big shots.  Lynn hammered veteran Malinga for a four and a six in the fourth over as KKR fetched 13 runs of it. There was no stopping Lynn as he struck two sixes off leg-spinner Rahul Chahar.