Another match to forget for Mumbai Indians as the 5-time champions lost their 9th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season. While MI’s playoff hopes had already ended, KKR’s fate is hanging by a thread, where even victories in the remaining two matches might not be possible for them to seal a playoffs berth.
The match between Mumbai and Kolkata offered a few more head-scratchers to the fans and experts of the game. MI’s persistence with an out-of-form Kieron Pollard remains baffling while the Knight Riders continued to chop and change their playing XI.
Top talking points from KKR vs MI match in IPL 2022:
Jasprit Bumrah’s fifer: The talismanic speedster finally looked on song doing what he does best. Bumrah bagged his first 5-wicket-haul of the IPL 2022 season. He bagged the wickets of Nitish Rana and Andre Russell in the middle-order before removing the likes of Sheldon Jackson, Pat Cummins and Sunil Narine to wipe off the dangerous tail.
Courtesy of his performances, KKR could only reach a score of 165 runs on the board. At one stage, it looked like Shreyas Iyer & Co. will easily touch the 180-run mark. Bumrah was also named the Player of the Match for his performance despite MI’s defeat.
KKR’s changing & chopping: How can the Knight Riders field the same XI in a new match? For the nth time, Kolkata made a plethora of changes in their team, with the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Pat Cummins and Sheldon Jackson coming back.
While the move paid off against Mumbai, a few eyebrows were raised why skipper Iyer revealed that even the franchise’s CEO is involved in team selection. Iyer even said that it’s been difficult for them to tell players why they were dropped from the team. Can a franchise really be successful with such involvement from the top management?
Persistence with Kieron Pollard: Yes, Kieron Pollard is one of Mumbai Indians’ most loyal servants. But, does he still deserve a spot in the playing XI? The West Indian all-rounder has unarguably been one of the biggest flops of IPL 2022 season. Yet, he continues to enjoy MI’s unwavering faith.
With someone like Dewald Bravis waiting on the bench and the playoffs race already over for MI, the franchise should be giving some of the young guns a chance to shine in the middle. However, such opportunities have been quite limited so far.
