Mumbai Indians (MI) outclassed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by six wickets. Rohit Sharma anchored the innings and remained unbeaten right till the end to to take his side over the line.
Rohit remained not out on 84 runs from just 54 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes. He was ably assisted by Parthiv Patel, Jos Buttler and Mitchell McClenaghan. Rohit proved yet again that he indeed owns the Eden Gardens. He just cannot stop scoring on this ground.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians won the toss and asked KKR to bat first. The hosts got off to a slow start. They also lost the wicket of Robin Uthappa early.
There was brilliant partnership between the KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey. The duo added 100 runs in tandem. Pandey and Gambhir both scored a half-century each. These two batsmen totally exploited the middle overs and scored at a good run rate. They were trying to hit a boundary every over and that eased a lot pressure off the batsmen who were to come after them.
Andre Russell came out and played a brilliant innings. He raced to 36 runs from just 17 balls. The West Indian's innings was decorated with one boundary and four sixes. That helped the KKR to post a total of 187 for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs.
Mumbai Indians, in reply, got off to a flier. Rohit and Patel were cruising in the early stages, before a misunderstanding between the two batsmen, allowed Brad Hogg to fashion a run out.
Rohit stood tall at the other end, however, and made sure he stayed at the crease.
When Hardik Panyda, coming again at No.3, got out, Ricky Ponting made a move that turned out to be pretty clever. The MI coach promoted Mitchell McClenaghan up the batting order and the Kiwi smashed three sixes in his short stay.
Post that, it was the Jos Buttler show. Buttler's innings comprised of three fours and three sixes. Unfortunately, he could not finish it off for his side, and got out for 41 from just 22 balls. But, Rohit stayed till the end to see MI home.
KKR have few things to worry about. Their bowling, which has always been one of the strong points, was in disarray when Rohit and Buttler were batting. Gambhir opted for three spinners as he decided to rest Umesh Yadav, replacing him with Kuldeep Yadav, who was taken for plenty. Their strike bowler from the last match, Brad Hogg, too, turned out to be expensive.
This was KKR's last match at home before six away games in a row, and a loss in this match made things a little more difficult for them.
