Mumbai Indians have always had a good record at the Eden Gardens, thanks to their mercurial captain, Rohit Sharma. Rohit came up with yet another special knock at Kolkata as he stayed from start to end to lead his side to a convincing six-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders.
After putting KKR into bat first, the Mumbai Indians would have felt that a target of 188 was never going to be a walk in the park. Despite missing Lendl Simmons due to injury, Parthiv Patel who came into open along with his skipper, Rohit set the right foundation for a brilliant chase.
Mitchell McClenaghan was promoted to No. 4 to score some quick runs and he did exactly what was asked of him as he scored 20 off 8 balls. However, the major damage was done by English wicketkeeper, Jos Buttler who scored a very useful 41 off 22 balls to help make the chase easier.
Kolkata Knight Riders captain, Gautam Gambhir:
“We needed to take wickets all the time, we didn't start well with the ball. We missed our lengths quite often. Credit to Mumbai, they accelerated at the right time. If someone bats through, it was difficult. We thought that spinners would be more effective than the pacers. They just played well, I can't point out one or two things.”
Mumbai Indians captain and man-of-the-match, Rohit Sharma:
“It's a high-scoring ground anyway. We have played enough cricket to that. They got 10-15 runs extra but we held them up pretty tight in the end. They were up for that 200 mark, our bowlers pulled it back well. Ricky's idea (McClenghan's promotion), he was in the dug-out and the left-hander was sent out with legspinners bowling, Mitch being a power-hitter we wanted to use that.
“We started well with the ball, our fielding needs to improve a little bit. We have seen Buttler play those kind of innings again and again for England.. it was my duty, responsibility to bat till the end.”
Indian commentator, Aakash Chopra:
Indian all-rounder, Yuvraj Singh:
Indian commentator, Harsha Bhogle:
Former England captain, Micahel Vaughan:
Former Australian women's cricketer, Lisa Sthalekar:
Former English cricketer, Alex Tudor:
