Indians hand Knight Riders a night to forget

A dismal batting display by the Knight Riders and a shattering spell by Shaun Pollock ended as the Mumbai Indians thrashed Kolkata by eight wickets, which is now the fastest Twenty20 win in a low scoring match of just 67 runs on the board.

After bowling out Kolkata for 67, the lowest score so far in the tournament, Mumbai Indians only needed 5.3 overs at the loss of two wickets to reach the destination. It was yet again Sanath Jayasuriya whose 17-ball innings of 48 left no option for Knight Riders to defend.

The Sri Lankan batting maestro with his unbeaten knock thrashed three lofty sixes taking his total number of sixes to 18 – the most by any in the tournament so far, leaving behind David Hussey’s tally of 17. He is also in the list of leading run getter with 300 at an average of 42.85.

It was unfeasible in this format of the game to defend such a low total although Shoaib Akhtar was able to dismiss the Mumbai lad Sachin Tendulkar for a duck. However, a batsman like Jayasuriya whose natural game goes well with T20 game and who likes to hit every ball down the ground irrespective of the reputation of the bowler, it was hard to make a full stop.

Earlier after winning toss captain Sachin asked Kolkata to bat first and Indians’ bowlers brought justice to the decission with excellent performance. Shaun Pollock emerges with his best T20 performance claiming 3 for 12 while Dwayne Bravo, Rohan Raje; Dominic Thornely took two wickets each. Ashish Nehra too bowled some tight spell to restrict Kolkata.

Skipper Sourav Ganguly (15) and Ajit Agarkar (15) did contribute to the total but they were forced to leave their wickets with a miserable batting exhibition in front some tight spell. The Knight Riders would like to forget the night to get back to the game as soon as possible to stay on the top four.

With this victory Mumbai Indians posted their fifth successive win and moved to the fourth slot of IPL points table with 10 points out nine matches they played so far.

Teams

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (C), Sanath Jayasuriya, Robin Uthappa, Dominic Thornely, Dwayne Bravo, Shaun Pollock, Abhishek Nayar, Yogesh Vijay Takawale (W), Rajesh Pawar, Rohan Raje, Ashish Nehra.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sourav Ganguly (C), Salman Butt, Aakash Chopra, David Hussey, Mohammad Hafeez, Laxmi Shukla, Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha (W), Ajit Agarkar, Shoaib Akhtar, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda.