For Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians (MI), the match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Mumbai was much like a farewell game given that they will now be playing all their matches away from the city. They were hence desperate to give their fans a winning farewell. And that is exactly what they did as Rohit Sharma played yet another captain’s innings and Kieron Pollard finally found his mojo to take their side home to a comfortable 6-wicket win at a packed Wankhede stadium.
KKR begin well
Rohit Sharma won the toss and asked KKR to bat first on a wicket that was supposed to stay true. KKR made a couple of changes in today’s game: Chris Lynn for Morne Morkel and Jaydev Unadkat came in for Piyush Chawla. Mumbai, meanwhile, had an unchanged side.
As has been the norm for them these days, KKR began on an excellent note as the best opening pair of the tournament – Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa – scored 69 in 7.4 overs. While Gambhir was his usual gritty self Uthappa was on attacking mode straightaway taking Tim Southee for three fours in the third over. He then slammed Bumrah and Harbhajan for sixes in back to back overs and looked hungry for more. Both the openers ran well between the wickets and at the end of 6 overs, KKR was 59-0 and well on their way to put up an imposing total.
Mumbai pulls it back a bit
Despite the great start, KKR could not get away with the game as Uthappa was soon dismissed, getting out for 36. Gambhir then continued his rich vein of form and notched up his third fifty of the season in style and was well supported by Surya Kumar Yadav who made 21.
However, KKR were stopped from posting a huge total by Harbhajan Singh (32-1 in 4 overs) and Jasprit Bumrah (34-0 in 4 overs) who checked the scoring with some incisive bowling despite dew setting in. They were well supported by Hardik Pandya who went for 15 in his two overs and took the important wicket of Shakib-al-Hasan.
Gambhir was dismissed for 59 in the 13th over and then the bulky West Indian Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan provided some lusty blows at the end to take their team to 174-5 at the end of 20 overs. Despite these blows, though, KKR just scored 48 in the last 5 overs. One would have thought that with the batting firepower they had, they had fallen short by 15-20 runs.
Rohit dominates again
Rohit Sharma just loves KKR’s bowling. He had demonstrated that in Mumbai’s first game against KKR earlier in the season and he did it again in front of his home crowd. Rohit was just sublime from the word go as he smashed Jaydev Unadkat for a six in the first over of the innings over the square leg boundary. Although Parthiv Patel fell for just 1 in the next over to Umesh Yadav, Ambati Rayudu played confidently and ably supported Rohit. He really took a liking to Unadkat’s bowling and creamed him for three consecutive fours in the 6th over which went for 19 runs.
At the end of the 6th over, then, Mumbai Indians were 64-1 and well on their way to the target.
A brief stutter
Wanting to dominate the spinners, Rayudu attempted to smash Shakib in the 7th over but holed out at long-on to a magnificent catch by Suryakumar Yadav. Krunal Pandya, who came in next, tried to attack Sunil Narine but the wily spinner had the better of him and had him bowled for just 6 in the 9th over.
Rohit continued in his graceful way and brought up his fourth fifty of the season (all while batting second) in the 12th over of the innings. Jos Butler, who was in next, attempted to bring the required run-rate down and smashed a couple of fours but was out caught at the long-off boundary off Narine to a stunning juggling catch by Chris Lynn.
The Pollard massacre
Mumbai needed 69 off 42 balls when Kieron Pollard came in at the fall of the 4th wicket. What followed was a sheer massacre. Pollard, who had been a little off-colour this season, was playing his 100th IPL game and made it a memorable one as he took Shakib for a couple of bludgeoning fours in 15th over and then Rajagopal Sathish for three monstrous sixes in the next one. He wasn’t just smashing them, he was literally murdering the ball. Gambhir’s introduction of Sathish in the 16th over raised some eyebrows and Pollard showed why. That over went for 23 runs and completely took the game away from Kolkata’s grasp.
Mumbai finishes it in style
By the time Unadkat came in to bowl the 18th over, the game was well over with Mumbai needing just 19 from 18 balls. Pollard added the finishing touches by crashing three sixes off the left-arm seam bowler and finishing the match with two overs to spare. Pollard eventually finished on 51 from just 17 balls with two fours and six massive sixes.
Rohit, meanwhile, came up with another Man of the Match effort having scored 68 off 49 balls with eight hits to the fence and two above it. Pollard’s whirlwind effort aside, it was Rohit’s composed innings – where he kept hitting boundaries at regular intervals to release the pressure – which was the main difference between the two sides.
For KKR, it was once again Sunil Narine in the bowling department who came out with flying colours. His four overs went for just 22 runs and he also scalped two wickets. Shakib-al-Hasan too bowled well but the others were fairly expensive. KKR, hence, has some thinking to do and need to find a settled bowling unit.
Mumbai, meanwhile, will take a lot of positives from this victory and are now third in the points table.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders: 174 for 5 off 20 overs (Gambhir 59, Uthappa 36)
Mumbai Indians: 178 for 4 off 18 overs (Rohit 68*, Pollard 51*)
IPL 2016 Points table
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