‘Jungle ki aag fel chuki hai’ – Kolkata dismantle Mumbai to keep playoff hopes alive

The 56th match of the Indian T20 league 2022 saw Kolkata beat Mumbai by 52 runs. With this victory, they live to fight another day as they still remain in the race to the playoffs. As for the Rohit Sharma-led side, they have now lost nine out of their 11 games of this edition.

After winning the toss and electing to bowl first, Mumbai’s bowlers weren’t able to pick early wickets. Venkatesh Iyer finally came to the party, and showed everyone why he is rated so highly. The batting all-rounder took the aggressive route early on, and got Kolkata to an explosive start.

However, he was dismissed by Kumar Karthikeya in the sixth over. On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane struggled to play the big shots. He was dismissed for 25, and took 24 balls for the same. Kolkata skipper Shreyas Iyer had a forgettable innings as he had to return to the pavilion after scoring just six runs.

Nevertheless, Nitish Rana played a good knock as he scored a 26-ball 43. It was Jasprit Bumrah who got the better of him. As a matter of fact, the Mumbai pacer was at his absolute best as he showed no mercy on the opposition batters. He picked a sensational fifer. Another important point to be noted is that he only gave 10 runs in his full quota of four overs.

Thus, the Kolkata-based franchise lost a cluster of wickets towards the end of the first innings, and could only score nine runs in the last three overs. The two-time champions scored 165, and lost nine wickets during the process. After which, the first over of the second innings saw Rohit Sharma being dismissed.

Although Ishan Kishan stood strong, Mumbai kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The keeper-batter was then dismissed after scoring 51 off 43 deliveries. The 15th over saw Mumbai lose three wickets. It was Pat Cummins who bowled the over as he changed the entire complexion of the game. This put the final nail in Mumbai’s coffin. At the end, they fell short of their target by 52 runs. They were bundled for 113. Several fans took to Twitter to speak about the game.

Here are some of the Tweets from today’s game: