Kolkata Knight Riders became the first team to secure a spot in the IPL 2024 Playoffs with a win over Mumbai Indians on Saturday. They have won nine of their 12 matches so far and top the IPL points table with 18 points.
Soon after the match, captain Shreyas Iyer revealed how he felt about KKR becoming the first team to qualify for the playoff stages. He told the broadcasters, “I manifested this before the game on becoming the first side to qualify for the playoffs. Nerves were there; boys have been raising their hands, and there have been many game-changers, and kudos to each and every one of them.”
KKR posted a total of 157 runs in their 20 overs after some fine batting from Venkatesh Iyer (42 off 21 balls), Nitish Rana (33 off 23 balls), Andre Russell (24 off 14 balls), and Rinku Singh (20 off 12 balls). However, after a solid start from MI openers Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma, the score began to look sub-par. However, MI could never really get back into the game after losing both openers right after the powerplay.
Though Tilak Varma (32 off 17 balls) and Naman Dhir (17 off 6 balls) did give MI a fighting chance, the duo couldn’t salvage 22 runs in the last over of the match.