Kolkata Knight Riders registered a 24-run win against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League. KKR were restricted for 169 runs in 19.5 overs by the Mumbai Indians pace bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Nuwan Thushara’s three-fers. The Mumbai Indians in response were wrapped up for 145 runs as Mitchell Starc picked up a 4 wicket haul.

Venkatesh Iyer was the top scorer for Kolkata Knight Riders with a 70-run knock which took his side to the score as Manish Pandey scored 42 runs off his bat. Suryakumar Yadav was the lone ranger scoring 56 runs which gave Mumbai Indians some hope, but once he was dismissed the hosts batting order was folded by the KKR pace bowlers to pick up their 1st win at the Wankhede stadium in 12 years.

The Kolkata Knight Riders set a target of 170 runs for the Mumbai Indians. It was a disastrous start for KKR as they lost 4 important wickets in the powerplay itself and then another wicket fell in the very first ball after the first six overs. But the impact sub, Manish Pandey played the supporting role along with Venkatesh Iyer and brought the innings back to normal as the latter went on to finish with 70 runs in 52 balls to put the visitors in contention.

For Mumbai Indians, Nuwan Thushara gave outstanding bowling performance in the power play and picked up 3 important wickets. Hardik Pandya also supported in the middle overs by picking up 2 important wickets along with the lone wicket by Piyush Chawla. Jasprit Bumrah showed his class at the death overs by taking 3 important wickets in the latter stages of the innings as Mumbai Indians needed 170 to win the match. Mumbai Indians only needed 51 runs off the last 5 overs, but a superb effort from KKR’s bowlers put an end to their hopes.

India continues to be ranked at the top in men’s ODIs and T20Is following the yearly update that the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Friday. India is currently ranked second in the Test rankings, with Australia holding the top spot.

According to the ICC, all series finished since May 2021 are reflected in the annual update for the Test rankings, which excludes results from the 2020–21 season. With 124 rating points, Australia, the victors of the World Test Championship, are currently top of the table.

India, who lost the top spot to them, is only four points ahead of third-place England and fifteen points ahead of them. With 103 points, South Africa is the fourth team above the 100-point threshold. India’s decline was primarily caused by their 2020–21 2-1 series win in Australia being removed from the rankings.

The teams that placed third through ninth are still in the same order. There are currently just nine countries in the rankings because Afghanistan, Ireland, and Zimbabwe have not played enough Test matches. Zimbabwe has only played three Test matches in the last three years. To be listed on the rankings table, a team must participate in eight Test matches within a three-year period.

India leads the ODI and T20I standings in terms of white-ball matches; according to the annual update, matches played before May 2023 are worth 50% of the total points, and matches played after then are worth 100%.

Despite losing to Australia in the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup final, India now leads the standings with 122 points, up from three points to six. The top ten remains unchanged, however Ireland has moved up to the eleventh spot, surpassing Zimbabwe.

In other changes, Scotland moved up to 12th place, surpassing Zimbabwe, and Pakistan fell two spots to seventh. Outside the top 20, Spain (moving up from 33rd to 30th), the Isle of Man (moving up from 44th to 41st), and Switzerland (moving up from 50th to 45th) have had the largest rating increases.

India’s star cricketer and Mumbai Indians former captain Rohit Sharma on Thursday finally opened on why MI’s captainship was given to Hardik Pandya before the beginning of IPL 2024. 

Rohit Sharma acknowledged  this by saying that not everything goes your way. Being removed from Mumbai’s captaincy was a shock to many in the cricket world and a bitter pill to swallow for Rohit’s horde of fans, many of whom also booed Hardik during the team’s opening games this IPL season.

The roles of Hardik and Rohit Sharma will be switched during the T20 World Cup, which will begin on June 2. As part of MI’s significant leadership transition, which has not gone as expected, Rohit is currently playing under Hardik. He will return as Pandya’s captain for the crucial ICC match. For the majority of his career, Rohit has served as Hardik’s captain and senior, but the events of the last month and the upcoming 30 days threaten to alter the relationship.

Rohit emphasized, but not in a bad way, describing how playing under Hardik before returning to captain him would not throw off the rhythm. He also said, it is part of life. When questioned by the media about his experience playing in the ongoing Indian Premier League under Pandya, the Indian captain responded, it has been a great experience.

The 37-year-old received criticism for not scoring enough runs with the willow in the preceding three seasons, but in the competition’s 17th edition, he had an entirely different appearance. Whatever is there and you go by it and then try and do what is required from you as a player. He said he has only tried to do that in the last one month. In 10 IPL 2024 innings, India’s skipper Rohit has already scored 314 runs.