Kolkata, May 20 (IANS) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) produced a clinical bowling performance led by the early strikes of Cameron Green and Saurabh Dubey before the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy tightened the screws to leave Mumbai Indians (MI) struggling at 147/8 in 20 overs in Match 65 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 clash at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Asked to bat first, the Mumbai Indians could not recover from a terrible start on a challenging two-paced pitch. Ryan Rickelton (6), after surviving the opening overs, edged Anukul Roy’s delivery to point, where Manish Pandey made a fantastic, swirling catch.

Green took control of the game with a powerful spell of seam bowling. The Australian dismissed Naman Dhir for a three-ball duck with a classic outswinger that caught the edge after repeatedly beating the batter outside off stump. Mumbai fell to 17/2 in three overs.

The pressure increased when Rohit Sharma (15) misplayed a slot ball from Saurabh Dubey towards deep midwicket. Green ran 33 meters from mid-on and completed a stunning over-the-shoulder catch while avoiding a collision with Rovman Powell, leaving MI at 24/3 in four overs.

Dubey continued to trouble Mumbai’s batters, although Suryakumar Yadav (15) briefly fought back with a trademark pickup six. The left-arm pacer then adjusted his angle and induced a thick inside edge from Suryakumar, who got out as Mumbai finished the powerplay at 46/4. Dubey’s opening figures were 3-0-22-2.

Then, a sudden rain interruption stopped play with Mumbai at 57/4 after eight overs. However, KKR’s spinners maintained their grip after the game resumed.

Sunil Narine, using a sharp turn and grip from the pitch, completely restricted the middle order. Tilak Varma struggled against the veteran spinner, who operated with a slip and short leg for Hardik Pandya, benefiting from significant pitch assistance. Narine allowed only six runs in his first two overs, leaving MI at a slow 64/4 after 10 overs.

Varun Chakravarthy, despite dealing with a small hairline fracture on his foot, also bowled effectively, conceding just four runs in his first over after the break. The mystery spinner finished with figures of 4-0-28-0 before Finn Allen took over as the Impact Player.

Tilak faced a scare when Varun dropped a high catch after almost colliding with substitute wicketkeeper Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who hurt his hand and had to leave the field. However, KKR quickly regained the upper hand as Kartik Tyagi dismissed Tilak, who managed only 20 runs off 32 balls, despite the short boundary on the leg side.

Hardik Pandya tried to rebuild alongside Will Jacks but never seemed comfortable against Narine’s variations. The off-spinner eventually broke through Hardik’s defence with a sharp offbreak at 94kph, getting the MI captain out for 26 off 27 balls. Narine finished with excellent figures of 4-1-13-1.

Will Jacks’ run-out for 13 added to Mumbai’s woes, as Corbin Bosch sent him back while trying for a risky second run. Bosch and Deepak Chahar then collected nine runs in Tyagi’s second last and 13 of Saurabh’s last, courtesy of back-to-back boundaries from Chahar.

Bosch then delivered back-to-back maximum’s of Tyagi’s last, followed by a boundary as visitors grabbed 52 runs of the last four overs, only to reach 147/8 in 20 overs.

Brief scores:

Mumbai Indians 147/8 in 20 overs (Corbin Bosch 32 not out, Hardik Pandya 26; Cameron Green 2-23, Saurabh Debey 2-34) against Kolkata Knight Riders.

–IANS

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