In a rare occasion, Andre Russell, on Sunday, flopped with both bat and ball as his side Kolkata Knight Riders were knocked out of the IPL after suffering a 9-wicket to defeat to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.
Coming in to bat at No. 5, Russell was dismissed for a golden duck – his first in this season – by Lasith Malinga, who surprised the big West Indian with a well-directed bouncer. When Russell got the ball in his hand with the hope of setting things right, he was clobbered by Quinton de Kock. The over started with a boundary from Rohit Sharma’s bat and then de Kock took the centre stage. He hit Russell for a boundary and a couple of sixes. 21 runs came from that over and MI gained the momentum in the chase.
De Kock’s attacking instincts did not go down well with Rusell, who decided to brush his shoulder with de Kock before returning back to his mark.
De Kock, however, did not read much into the incident. “It was just a bit of fun out there. Think he was a bit angry as I took him on,” de Kock told IPLT20.com at the end of the match.
KKR and SRH ended the league phase on 12 points each but the Hyderabad-based side sneaked to the play-offs with 0.577 net run rate against 0.028 of the Kolkata side.
