Mumbai Indians thrash KKR, claim 2nd spot

Mumbai, May 8 (IANS):

Mumbai Indians moved to second place, all but ending Kolkata Knight Riders‘ dreams of qualifying for the playoffs, after an emphatic 65-run win in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Wankhede Stadium here Tuesday.

Mumbai bowled out the Knight Riders for a meagre total of 105 in 18.2 overs after electing to bat and scoring 170 for six. They collected all two points and moved within just two points of league leaders Chennai Super Kings, who are on 18 points.

Harbhajan Singh produced his best performance this season picking up three wickets while Pragyan Ojha and Mitchell Johnson chipping in with two apiece.

Johnson again made the early inroads for Mumbai, castling Gautam Gambhir (0) in the fourth ball of the chase.

Johnson was unlucky not to pick up another wicket in his next over with Harbhajan dropping Manvinder Bisla (17) in the slips.

Bisla, though, failed to take advantage and fell soon enough to Ojha. Yusuf Pathan (13) came in and tonked the ball for a six and a four but tried one too many shots and became Ojha’s second victim.

Kolkata, then, kept losing wickets at regular intervals with the last five wickets falling for just 28 runs.

Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar (48) got Mumbai off to a blistering start smacking Ryan McLaren for five consecutive fours.

Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith (47) added 93 runs for the first wicket and it seemed that Mumbai would post a massive score.

However, after Tendulkar’s fell Mumbai lost the next five wickets in no time adding just 51 runs to the total.

Mumbai scored 35 off the last two overs with Dinesh Karthik (34 off 18 balls) playing a crucial cameo in the end.

The following is the scoreboard of the Indian Premier League (IPL) matche between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium here Tuesday.

Mumbai Indians

Dwayne Smith c McLaren b Iqbal Abdulla 47

Sachin Tendulkar b Bhatia 48

Dinesh Karthik not out 34

Rohit Sharma c Morgan b McLaren 16

Kieron Pollard c Narine b McLaren 4

Ambati Rayudu run out (Balaji/Bisla) 0

Harbhajan Singh run out (Pathan) 0

Mitchell Johnson not out 10

Extras (lb 1, w 10) 11

Total (for six wickets 20 overs) 170

Fall of wickets: 1-93 (Tendulkar, 12.6 overs), 2-99 (Smith, 13.3), 3-130 (Sharma, 17.1), 4-134 (Pollard, 17.5), 5-135 (Rayudu, 17.6), 6-144 (Harbhajan Singh, 18.3)

Bowling

Lakshmipathy Balaji 3-1-7-0

Ryan McLaren 4-0-60-2

Sunil Narine 4-0-29-0

Jacques Kallis 3-0-21-0

Iqbal Abdulla 4-0-30-1

Rajat Bhatia 2-0-22-1

Kolkata Knight Riders

Manvinder Bisla st Karthik b Ojha 17

Gautam Gambhir b Johnson 0

Jacques Kallis c Ahmed b Harbhajan Singh 24

Yusuf Pathan b Ojha 13

Eoin Morgan c Sharma b Ahmed 5

Debabrata Das c & b Harbhajan Singh 23

Ryan McLaren run out (Sharma/Karthik) 1

Rajat Bhatia c Malinga b Harbhajan Singh 4

Sunil Narine c Karthik b Johnson 3

Lakshmipathy Balaji b Malinga 0

Extras (lb 9) 9

Total (all out in 18.2 overs) 105

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Gambhir, 0.4 overs), 2-38 (Bisla, 6.1), 3-54 (Pathan, 8.3), 4-58 (Kallis, 9.5), 5-77 (Morgan, 12.2), 6-89 (Das, 13.6), 7-89 (McLaren, 14.1), 8-97 (Bhatia, 15.6), 9-104 (Narine, 17.4 ), 10-105 (Balaji, 18.2)

Bowling

Mitchel Johnson 4-0-13-2

Abu Nechim Ahmed 3-0-18-1

Pragyan Ojha 4-0-23-2

Lasith Malinga 3.2-0-15-01

Harbhajan Singh 4-0-27-3

Toss: Mumbai Indians, who chose to bat

Result: Mumbai Indians won by 65 runs

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and S. Ravi

TV umpire: C.K. Nandan

Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka)