Two teams who were in the top half of the points table faced each other and everyone expected a close fought contest. It didn’t happen though as Mumbai Indians defeated Kolkata Knight Riders convincingly. With the win Mumbai have moved up to number three position in the points table and with 16 points from 13 matches look good to qualify for the playoffs.

Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat first, they lost the important wicket of Sachin upfront but that didn’t had any impact in the end as both Gibbs and Sharma played a fabulous knock and took Mumbai to a score of 182.

Knight Riders lost two early wickets and were always behind the eight ball. They had some descent partnerships in the middle but that wasn’t good enough.

Here are some of the hits and flops from both innings.

Mumbai Indians:

Hits:

Rohit Sharma: Rohit Sharma was at his best and scored his maiden century in IPL. He is one of the cleanest strikers when in full form and all his talent was on display in the game against KKR. He scored an unbeaten 109 in just 60 deliveries and his innings included 12 fours and five sixes.

Herschelle Gibbs: He was playing his first match in IPL-5 and he straightaway made an impression. Gibbs hit three fours in Brett Lee’s over and made his intentions clear. He rotated the strike beautifully and played some gorgeous shots in-between. Gibbs also became the only batsmen in the tournament so far who tackled Sunil Narine well.

Munaf Patel: He was making a comeback into the side and he looked like a man who wanted to prove a point. Gambhir was dropped of his first ball and on the very next ball he knocked his stumps out. Gambhir has been the most dangerous batsmen for KKR and his wicket was very crucial for Mumbai.

Mumbai played a near perfect match and there were hardly any week performance from them.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Hits:

Shakib Al Hasan: He was the only bowler from KKR who had a wicket against his name and did not leak runs. He got the important wicket of Sachin and bowled in the right channel. He conceded only 27 runs in his four overs.

Jacques Kallis: He was struggling to perform in the tournament with the bat, and the innings that he played against Mumbai will give him a lot of confidence. Kallis is very important for KKR if they want to win the tournament and the innings of 79 came at a right time for him.

Flops:

Brett Lee: He is the most experienced bowler in the side but he didn’t bowl like one. Lee gave far too many lose deliveries and was punished. He conceded 44 runs in his four overs.

Rajat Bhatia: He has been very impressive in most of the matches, but struggled against the Mumbai batsmen. His role is to put a stranglehold on the batsmen but he conceded far too many runs for his team’s linking.

Manoj Tiwary: He scored 27 runs of 25 balls in a situation where his team needed close to 10 runs per over. It is understandable that he came to bat when Kolkata lost two early wickets, but even then he could have played some more shots.        




By Gaurav Jha

Indian Sports News