Conceding that his team looked down and out despite a fighting 70 by Venkatesh Iyer, Kolkata Knight Riders spinner Varun Chakravarthy said the 24-run victory over Mumbai Indians was special as it was their first win at Wankhede in 12 years.
Jasprit Bumrah (3-18) and Nuwan Thushara (3-42) claimed three wickets apiece at each end of the KKR innings as Mumbai Indians restricted them to a paltry 169 despite brilliant fighting 70 off 52 balls by Venkatesh Iyer, who raised 83 runs for the sixth wicket in the company of Manish Pandey, rescuing their team from a precarious 57/5 at one stage.
Chakravarthy praised Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey for pulling them to 169 which they eventually defended.
“This is a very special win because we were down and out in the first innings. The way Venkatesh and Manish pulled it back was great,” said Chakravarthy at the presentation ceremony.
Mitchell Starc claimed 4-33, bagging three wickets in four balls in the 19th over to end Mumbai’s innings for 145 after spin twins Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy had reduced them to 61/4 with identical 2-22 hauls.
Suryakumar Yadav waged a lone battle raising Mumbai Indians’ hopes with a 35-ball 56, raising 49 runs for the seventh wicket with Tim David (24) before Andre Russell (2-30) and Mitchell Starc ended Mumbai’s innings, sharing the last five wickets between them.
“Extremely good feeling, because we haven’t won at Wankhede for 12 years. It was just a matter of one wicket (when David was batting and had brought down the equation to 26 off 11 balls],” said Varun Chakravarthy.
He said bowling in the second innings was very tough the dew made gripping the ball difficult. He said the wicket had also improved and the ball was not stopping and turning as it did when KKR batted.
“There was dew, but somehow we controlled our emotions. Second innings there was not much help (for the spinners) because of the dew. The batters did tell that the ball was stopping and turning. But when I came on to bowl, I realised it wasn’t stopping,” he said.
Chakravarthy called fellow spinner Sunil Narine “a legend” as both of them finished with identical figures of 2-22 off four overs, bowling in tandem to start Mumbai Indians’ downfall.