Saurav Ganguly won the toss and elected to bat Monday at the Brabourne Stadium. Ganguly opened the innings with Chris Gayle who put on 70 runs for the opening partnership. The arrival of Chris Gayle didn’t quite set the Brabourne Stadium on fire, but scored a steady half-century, to take Kolkata Knight Riders to 155. Though Kolkata lost just three wickets, they were restricted to a small total due to the accurate bowling by the Mumbai bowlers who managed to curb the scoring.
Mumbai bowlers sent down yorkers and good length deliveries on the leg stump and close to the pads to restrict Kolkata’s scoring. That tactic worked well enough to keep Gayle checked and could not play freely as he is known to be a hard hitter. He reached his fifty, in the 16th over then he began to unleash himself.
Kolkata didn’t set the tone for the first 15 overs as Mumbai bowled extremely well not allowing any room to Gayle and Sourav Ganguly to free their arms and hit boundaries.
Kolkata’s best period early on was the third over where Ganguly picked three consecutive boundaries off Ryan McLaren. Harbhajan bowled over the wicket to the left-handers and stuck to a flatter trajectory. A frustrated Ganguly tried to slog him and lost his middle stump.
The batsmen were not given room to break free and they were also to blame for failing to put away several full tosses. The arrival of Owais Shah at the crease , infused some life and Gayle also started hitting shots. Gayle then brought up his fifty with consecutive boundaries. For the Mumbai Indians Zaheer Khan took 2 for 27 runs and Harbhajan Singh took 1 for 17 runs.
An outstanding fast bowling display by Mumbai had restricted Kolkata to a modest score of 155 runs for the loss of 3 wickets at the end of 20 overs.
Mumbai Indians opened their innings with Sachin Tendulkar and Shikhar Dhawan. The pair made 61 runs for the opening partnership when Dhawan was caught by Ganguly off Kartik. Sachin made his 5th IPL fifty and remained not out for 71 runs. Saurabh Tiwary played a useful knock and scored 30 runs for the Mumbai Indians. He was caught by Ganguly and bowled by Sharma. R Satish was not out on 21 runs. Ishant Skarma took the wickets of SS Tewary and Pollard and his bowling figures read 2 for 44 runs but he had no clue where to bowl to Sachin who slammed him mercilessly. Murli Kartik got 1 for 21.
Kolkatta Knight Riders had won their first two encounters but have now lost three games in a row and need to consolidate themselves for their future encounters in the group.
Maubai Indians won the match by 7 wickets beating Kolkatta Knight Riders in a low scoring encounter They are now on top of the table with 6 points.
The award for the maximum sixes went to Chris Gayle.
The Karbonn Kamaal Catch award went to Saurav Ganguly.
The Man of the Match award went to Sachin Tendulkar for his 71 runs not out.
Ravi Matah