IPL 2021, KKR v MI: 3 reasons why the Kolkata Knight Riders lost

The Indian Premier League (IPL) match-up against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is one which the Mumbai Indians (MI) chalk off as a win even before the game is played.

After all, they have won 21 of the 27 encounters between them, lost just one in the last 10, and absolutely thrashed KKR in the two games where they met last season.

For approximately 35 overs of the contest, KKR were crushing the match, all set to register a comprehensive win over their bogey opponents. It was then that a combination of good death bowling and abominably poor thinking by the KKR batsmen brought MI back into the contest from nowhere. They put pressure on themselves when they had control of the game, and lost yet another match to their IPL tormentors.

Here are three reasons why KKR lost to MI in the IPL match on April 13.

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#3 Shubman Gill's casual dismissal

Shubman Gill looked in good touch till he threw his wicket away.

On a pitch where run-scoring was easiest in the powerplay, and progressively got harder as the game went on, batsmen needed to take initiative early in the innings. This was mirrored across both innings, as the likes of Nitish Rana and Suryakumar Yadav played fluent innings when the ball came onto the bat nicely.

In the absence of any external pressure, Shubman Gill threw away his wicket by attacking leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, who had appeared the only MI bowler capable of posing a threat. Without quite getting to the pitch of the ball, Gill tried to clear the ropes but fell short. Knowing how difficult it was for new batsman to come in, he should have stayed around for longer and cemented a cakewalk win for KKR.

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#2 Poor batting decisions by KKR middle order

Rahul Chahar picked up - or was gifted - four KKR top order wickets.

Although the MI bowling vastly improved in the back half of the game, there was still scoreboard pressure when the likes of Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hasan came out to bat.

While Tripathi made the cardinal mistake of playing away from his body to a spinner turning the ball away, thereby losing control of the shot, the senior men in the middle order could have done far better.

Batting at No. 4, Eoin Morgan looked good and found a boundary off Jasprit Bumrah early in his innings. However, instead of playing out the only wicket-taker till that stage, Morgan decided to go for the kill - unconvincingly - and was completely flummoxed by a slower gripper, holing out in the deep.

Just as it looked like Shakib would guide the team home, he went for a pointless slog to expose two new batsmen as KKR began to fall apart.

Get the updated IPL points table 2021 here.

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#1 Finishers finished off by MI

Despite two reprieves, Andre Russell could not match his bowling heroics with the bat.

Quite like the unimpressive lower-middle order of the five-time champions on the night, KKR's finishers performed well before their billing. Dinesh Karthik, wildly successful Tamil Nadu skipper, should have known the ground and the shots to target as well as anyone, but he too could hardly get more than the odd single.

Andre Russell has for two seasons now been an abject disappointment for KKR with the bat. Fans would be delighted with the other contributions of the duo - Karthik is as good a wicketkeeper as any in the league, and Russell delivered a stunning five-fer with the ball.

But they needed more than his utter failure to middle the ball, save for a Bumrah free hit. KKR need Russell to get back to his best if they are to harbour hopes of turning around their barren run.