MI secure the top place in IPL2017 knockouts
Mumbai Indians 173 for 5 (Rayudu 63, Tiwary 52, Boult 2-30) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 164 for 8 (Pandey 33, de Grandhomme 29, Hardik 2-22) by nine runs
Mumbai Indian rested six of their star players, having already secured a place in the knockouts, as Kolkata Knight Riders handed their opponents their 100th T20 win, at Eden Gardens. Chasing 174 for a chance to topple Mumbai for the top spot, KKR lost by nine-run and slipped to third spot in the points table.
Mumbai end the league stage with 20 points, winning 10 of their 14 games, while KKR finished third with 16 points behind Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have 17. If Rising Pune Supergiant beat Kings XI Punjab tomorrow, then they climb to second spot with 18 points, with SRH and KKR finishing in the bottom half of the top four. IF Kings XI beat RPS, then with all three sides on 16 points, it would come down to Net Run Rate and Pune are only team with a negative NRR.
Rohit Sharma knocked four boundaries and one six in an inning of 27 off 21 before being trapped LBW by Ankit Rajpoot. Lendl Simmons went for a duck. In the 12th over, when Rayudu, on 9 then, survived one that spun back in sharply and nearly took off the bails, but the batsman got a thing edge onto the pad, which was eventually dropped by wicketkeeper Uthappa. Rayudu was eventually stumped off Kuldeep Yadav for 63 off 37 balls in the penultimate over.
When KKR batted Tim Southee started proceedings for Mumbai with a wicket maiden getting Sunil Narine for a duck off the fourth ball of the innings. Then Mitchell Johnson claimed the wicket of skipper Gautam Gambhir for 21, for the fourth time in 35 balls in T20s, before Chris Lynn knocked him for successive fours. Kolkatta at this stage had an outside chance to win, as Kolkata lost three within the Powerplay when Uthappa sliced straight to Rohit at cover. Vinay Kumar, struck off his second ball to send back Chris Lynn who was looking dangerous with 26 off 14. He removed Yusuf Pathan who swiped straight back to Hardik Pandya at long on. Now KKR needed 87 off 11 overs. Although Manish Pandey was handed a life in the 14th over when he survived on 22 and went on to add further 11 runs keeping his team in the hunt, KKRE failed to pull off a win.