Qualifier 2 MI v KKR, Player of the match: Karn Sharma

Karn Sharma's four for 16 is his best bowling performance in the IPL; it's also the third best in a playoff game.

Karn Sharma bowled his best in a match that his team's couldn't afford to lose.

After his last international match, in December 2014, against Australia in Adelaide, in which he was picked ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin, Karn Sharma faded to obscurity. Yes, he had a decent outing in the 2015 IPL, in which he picked up 10 wickets for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, but nothing significant otherwise. The next year’s IPL was disastrous: five games, zero wickets at an economy rate over 10. This year too, apart from the three for 17 versus Delhi Daredevils, he had done little else for Mumbai Indians. And, without Harbhajan Singh, he was the frontline spinner against Kolkata Knight Riders in a match his team couldn’t afford to lose. In this match, he tricked Sunil Narine with a googly, did the same to Colin de Grandhomme, forced errors off Gautam Gambhir and Ishank Jaggi, and got himself out of obscurity.

Karn's four for 16 is his best bowling performance in the IPL; it's also the third best in a playoff game.