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The Indian Premier League table has turned yet again. While one could be forgiven for backing defending champions Mumbai Indians against Kolkata Knight Riders for their superior record, the way the Knight Riders played against Mumbai, it seemed like there was a stark difference in the class of both the teams.
It was the same team that had a poor run in the Indian leg of IPL 2021 but after two successive wins and the manner in which they have come back, it has suddenly given a big push to their chances of securing a playoff berth. Meanwhile, Venkatesh Iyer has emerged as their hero after his quickfire innings blew away Mumbai Indians. He reached his maiden IPL half-century in just his second match, scoring 53 from just 30 balls. Along with him Rahul Tripathi also backed himself to go for the big shots as he finished with an unbeaten 74, allowing the team to finish the match with 29 balls remaining.
Mumbai, meanwhile, have lost two back-to-back matches in UAE and are out of the top 4 positions. While the result should set the alarm bells ringing in their dugout, their bowlers were toyed around with on Thursday which would have been very disheartening for captain Rohit Sharma.
Asked to bat first, Mumbai had got off to a good start with them reaching 77/0 in 9 overs but in the middle overs post the dismissal of Rohit Sharma, they failed to get any momentum whatsoever and despite Kieron Pollard's 21, managed to end at mere 155/6. In the run chase, Kolkata never gave Mumbai a chance, scoring 15 runs each of the first two overs. By the time, Bumrah sent Shubman Gill back, Kolkata had already got off to a rollicking start. Later, Rana joined Iyer in a fearless display of stroke-making and made a mockery of Mumbai's star-studded bowling.
Following Mumbai's defeat, Twitter has gone berserk with all kinds of reactions. Here is a compilation of some of them:
