Narine helps Knight Riders smother Mumbai Indians

On a tricky pitch at the Wankhede, the Kolkata Knight Riders stifled the Mumbai Indians to comfortably defend a score of 140 with a 32-run win that all but qualifies them for the playoff stage. The pitch posed problems for nearly all the batsmen, with the ball not coming on to the bat and surprising grip and turn as the match went on. As it turned out, this factor proved conclusive in turning the match Kolkata’s way.

Chasing a stiff but reachable target of 140, Mumbai Indians’ innings looked nothing but a house of cards which was about to collapse any minute. And that collapse was triggered at 60 for 1 after 10.5 overs when Sachin Tendulkar went inside the line off a slightly short delivery by Narine, only to see it turn in viciously and hit the woodwork. It was a dismissal that the Mumbaikars were never going to recover from, losing wickets at regular intervals before gifting a heap of wickets at the finish to end the misery of the Mumbai fans. Herschelle Gibbs had earlier crawled to 13 off 24 only to be dismissed with a tame miss at a sweep and getting out lbw. Mumbai thereafter failed to keep up with the required rate and left too much for their power hitters down the order to accomplish.

Kolkata had earlier themselves struggled to score fluently, losing 3 wickets with 7 runs in the middle and teetering dangerously close to a collapse at 96 for 6, but Pathan helped Kolkata score 44 off the last 26 deliveries and post a competitive total of 140. On a track that promised turn, Gambhir picked three spinners in the side, Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan and Iqbal Abdulla, a decision that would turn out to be pivotal in its implications. A hapless attempt by the Mumbai batsman to cut, sweep and drive the deceptive slow bowling of the Knight Riders only ended up as tame misses, mistimed slogs and ungainly edges as the trio of spinners finished with a tally of 6 wickets. In a tournament highlighted by batting performances, this match was to be one of its kind with the bowlers dominating the proceedings.

Performance of the day

Sunil Narine continued to flummox the batsmen with his variations, and with the help of some bounce and turn from the track, succeeded in taking 4 scalps for 13 runs.

Mr. Disappointment

On the same track, Harbhajan Singh conceded 24 runs of 3 overs, failing to capitalize on the help proffered by the pitch. His approach of bowling flat and quick with reluctance to flight the ball has led to some par performances through the tournament, and it was no different yesterday.

Drops of the day

Catching on the boundaries has been posing a few problems for the Indian players. Evidently they are not too comfortable with cupping their hands sideways to grab running catches at boundary edges. Piyush Chawla, Sachin Tendulkar and Debabrata Das have put down catches in the same fashion in the last couple of days to put another question mark on the standard of fielding that the Indians have exhibited in comparison to their imported counterparts. It was topped by a wild throw by Laxmipathy Balaji at the stumps to gift Gibbs with four precious overthrow runs yesterday.

Moment of the day

R.P. Singh has lately been giving glimpses of his best days, displaying his ability to angle the ball in late into the batsman at a good pace and leaving the batsmen stuck in a prodding position with the ball thudding into the pads or castling the stumps. Kallis was at the receiving end of one such delivery as he got his off stump taken out by a terrific in-swinging delivery by R.P. and returned to the pavilion to make peace with his one-ball stay at the crease.

Match meter

It was a match dominated by bowling performances on a helpful pitch, and looked like it would end in another nerve-wracking finish before Mumbai decided to collapse tamely and give Kolkata a much deserved win. However, some class from Gambhir and Sachin and an intriguing spell from Narine managed to make the match a fairly entertaining one.

Score: 7/10.

The next step

Mumbai’s weaknesses come to the fore with this loss, as their unit fails to click as a team once again. Individual sparks have rewarded them with close wins in the past, but these erratic spurts of brilliance may not enough to get them over the line with tougher challenges waiting in the playoffs. The opening combination continues to pose a concern, with a disappointing outing from Gibbs now giving him little room for mistakes before the team decides to give Sachin another partner. Pollard could be promoted up the order in the next few games to give him more overs to work with so that the overwhelming targets are not presented to the lower order batsmen. The bowling though has been frugal and meticulous, but Harbhajan Singh needs to step up as the leading spinner in the side and get into wicket-taking form before hitting the playoffs.

Kolkata exhibited a prime example of what Mumbai did not do: play as a team. They are not gifted with a battery of power hitters or with a daunting line-up of intimidating pacers, but each of their players has looked to come forward and contribute to their wins, if not with the bat and the ball then with some enthused and inspirational fielding performances. They have all but sealed a berth in the playoffs, but they would still be looking to address a few areas of improvement. While Pathan has finally delivered down the order with some sharp innings, Kallis and Tiwary have yet to come into their own and lend able support to Gambhir. Their bowlers have come together time and again to deliver some highly disciplined bowling performances, and pose a major challenge to any batting line-up that they come up against in the playoffs.

Mumbai Indians will now play their last league match against the Rajasthan Royals on May 20 in Jaipur, while Kolkata Knight Riders will face Pune Warriors on May 19 at Pune in their last league outing.