The Mumbai Indians stormed their way to the VIVO IPL 2017 Final after they defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in Qualifier 2 on Friday night. 

After opting to bowl, the MI bowlers destroyed their opponents, bundling them out for 107, after which their batsmen chased down the runs with in 14.3 overs. Karn Sharma was the destroyer-in-chief for MI, while Krunal Pandya’s performance stood out in the run-chase.

MI reaped the rewards for being aggressive at the start of the match. Mitchell Johnson, playing in place of the injured Mitchell McClenaghan, bowled a fiery first over and conceded only three runs. Jasprit Bumrah benefitted from the pressure built at the other end as Chris Lynn holed out to long-on in the second over. The other opener – Sunil Narine, and Gautam Gambhir struggled to get the ball of the square in the face of extremely disciplined bowling from MI. KKR were 22/1 after 4 overs.

MI had a rough start to their chase; Lendl Simmons didn’t pick a googly from Piyush Chawla and played down the wrong line to be dismissed LBW, while Parthiv Patel edged a wide delivery to the wicketkeeper in the third over. MI were reduced to 34/3 when Ambati Rayudu too played down the wrong line and lost his off peg to Chawla.

Krunal Pandya hit eight boundaries in his 28-ball 45 and duly scored the winning runs. As a result of this convincing win, MI progress to the tournament Final where they will meet Rising Pune Supergiant; the title clash will be played in Hyderabad on Sunday, May 21.

Brief Scores

Kolkata Knight Riders: 107 in 18.5 Overs (Suryakumar Yadav 31, Ishank Jaggi 28, Karn Sharma 4-16, Jasprit Bumrah 3-7, Mitchell Johnson 2-28) lost to Mumbai Indians: 111-4 in 14.3 Overs (Krunal Pandya 45*, Rohit Sharma 26, Piyush Chawla 2-34) by 6 wickets.