Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023's match no.22 saw the heavyweights Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) locking horns with each other at the iconic Eden Gardens stadium on Sunday (April 16).
Rohit Sharma-less MI won the toss and and opted to bowl first against KKR. In absence of Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav was given the onus to lead the five-time champions. KKR didn't get off to a great start as they lost their opener Narayan Jagadeesan was sent to pavilion without opening his account in the very second over by Cameron Green.
But Venkatesh Iyer continued to take MI bowlers to cleaners and steadies KKR's boat. But yet against KKR suffered another jolt in Rahmanullah Gurbaz who fall for 8 off 12 in the sixth over. Then came the KKR skipper who tried to pair up with Venkatesh and steer team's boat. But his short-lived stay came to an end in a rather dramatic fashion in the ninth over. Hrithik Shokeen got the prized wicket of Rana and right after the latter's dismissal, the duo involved in a heated exchange which grabbed everyone's eyeballs. As Nitish Rana was walking towards the dressing room, Hrithik Shokeen was found saying something to him, to which the KKR captain gave a bitter retort. However, Suryakumar immediately came to the rescue and diffused the situation.
Here's the video…
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Both Nitish Rana and Hrithik Shokeen play for Delhi in Domestic Cricket and they have a history of such exchanges as it has been learnt that they don’t talk in the dressing room too. It all started in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Both weren’t talking while batting in Ranji too.
Meanwhile, Regular skipper Rohit Sharma missed out after suffering from a ‘stomach bug’. In another big news, Arjun Tendulkar, son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, was handed his maiden IPL cap. KKR went in with an unchanged playing XI.
“We were going to bat first anyways. The mood in the dressing room is good, need to improve our bowling. We believe we can chase 200-210. The ball might turn in the second innings I think. One player can't win you a tournament, it's a team sport. It's good for us, that everyone is scoring runs. We'll target to score around 180 on this wicket, we are playing with the same team,” KKR Rana said after the toss.
“Will love to bowl first, the wicket looks dry. The ball comes on to the bat nicely later. Rohit is out, he has a stomach bug. Time to put up a good show. We are going with one change, Duan Jansen comes in, rest all is same,” MI's stand-in skipper Suryakumar said.
Mumbai Indians playing XI: Ishan Kishan(w), Cameron Green, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Arjun Tendulkar, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Riley Meredith.
Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakaravarthy.
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