KKR vs MI IPL 2024: Kolkata Knight Riders has become the first team to reach the playoffs of IPL 2024. KKR defeated Mumbai Indians by 18 runs in the last over and booked a playoff ticket with 18 points. In this thrilling match played at Eden Gardens, fast bowler Harshit Rana played an important role in giving KKR victory, who snatched the victory from the hands of Mumbai Indians in the last over. KKR captain Shreyas Iyer ignored world class bowler Mitchell Starc and bet on Harshit Rana in the last over, which proved to be right. Harshit was successful in living up to his captain’s trust. He single-handedly turned the result of the match in his favor by bowling brilliantly in the pressure moment.
Table of Contents
Mumbai Indians needed 22 runs to win in the last over. KKR captain Shreyas Iyer decided to bowl the last over i.e. the 16th over by Harshit Rana. Naman Dheer and Anshul Kamboj were at the crease.
Harshit gave a big blow to Mumbai by getting Naman Dheer caught by Rinku Singh on the first ball. Naman was out after scoring 17 runs off 6 balls. On the second ball, Anshul Kamboj took a run and gave the strike to set batsman Tilak Verma. On the third ball, Harshit got Tilak caught by Philip Salt.
On the fourth ball, new batsman Piyush Chawla did not take any run. On the fifth ball, Piyush took a run and gave the strike to Anshul. On the sixth and last ball, Anshul took a run. In this way, Mumbai’s team fell 18 runs behind the target of 158 runs set by KKR.
KKR remained at seventh position for two consecutive seasons
Kolkata Knight Riders were at seventh position for the last 2 seasons. KKR finished at seventh position in the points table in 2022 and 2023. But in 2024 this team became the first team to qualify for the playoffs. While opener Phil Salt and Sunil Narayan dominated the entire tournament in batting for KKR, Varun Chakraborty, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narayan, Andre Russell, Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora made a splash in bowling.
Shreyas Iyer did wonders in captaincy
Under his captaincy, Shreyas Iyer has taken Delhi Capitals to the finals. He was the first captain of the team to take Delhi to the finals. After Delhi, he has also got Kolkata a playoff ticket. Shreyas has shown great leadership by overcoming the difficulties that the last two seasons have been.