MUMBAI: The sight of Shoaib Akhtar steaming in is a scary sight for the batsmen, apart from testing their reaction time. Ishant Sharma bringing the ball down from a height is a daunting prospect. Without runs to defend, these two weapons turned into blanks for Kolkata Knight Riders.
Sanath Jayasuriya steadied Mumbai Indians’ nerves with blistering strokeplay (48 not out, 17b), flicking sixes to mid-wicket like only he can to rattle the bowlers, reducing the run chase to a no-contest as the home team sauntered home by eight wickets in its DLF-Indian Premier League’s ninth round match at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.
Akhtar was brought down to earth after the minor high of Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket off the fifth ball, as Jayasuriya’s counter-punching resulted in 29 runs in over number two. From then on, it was a cruise all the way for Mumbai and it overhauled Kolkata’s 67 — the lowest score in the IPL so far — in just 5.3 overs.
Shaun Pollock showed Mumbai the way with an outstanding four-over spell of swing bowling, finishing with three for 12 after the visitors were asked to bat.
Tendulkar chipped in with four catches as Dwayne Bravo (two for 13), Rohan Raje (two for 16) and Dominic Thornely (two for seven) joined the party.
Top class
Mumbai Indians’ ground fielding and catching was top class, drying up the runs and forcing the harassed batsmen into mistakes. Pollock, named ‘man-of-the-match’, talked about keeping the process simple. Tendulkar felt winning was easy as long as the South African came up with such spells.
Pollock got another opportunity to assume the leadership of Mumbai’s bowling resources after Tendulkar opted to field. The darting ball evaded Salman Butt’s blade before the opener walked out to loft the bowler over long-off and overcame anxious moments against Nehra’s movement with a slashed six to point.
The South African returned to get his man, Butt guiding an outswinger into Tendulkar’s hands at first slip and Knight Riders’ horror continued with opener Aakash Chopra’s run out.
Pollock’s spell over the batsmen ended with the Knight Riders at 29 for four and its middle-order exposed.
Wriddiman Saha slashed at a Bravo delivery in a hurry to get cracking and found the ball flying to Tendulkar.Thornely and Raje were pressed into action, forcing Ganguly to give the slow bowlers the charge.
The Kolkata icon fell while attempting a glide to third man, Takawale moving well to complete the catch.
The scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders: S. Butt c Tendulkar b Pollock 13, A. Chopra (run out) 1, S. Ganguly c Takawale b Thornely 15, D. Hussey c Takawale b Pollock 2, Mohd. Hafeez c Uthappa b Pollock 5, W. Saha c Tendulkar b Bravo 1, L.R. Shukla b Raje 0, A. Agarkar c Tendulkar b Bravo 15, S. Akhtar c Tendulkar b Raje 2, Ishant c & b Thornely 4, A. Dinda (not out) 1; Extras (lb-2, w-6): 8; Total (in 15.2 overs): 67.
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-16, 3-21, 4-28, 5-29, 6-35, 7-55, 8-60, 9-65.
Mumbai Indians: S. Jayasuriya (not out) 48, S. Tendulkar c Saha b Akhtar 0, R. Uthappa c Ganguly b Ishant 9, D. Thornely (not out) 1; Extras (lb-5, w-4, nb-1): 10; Total (for two wkts. in 5.3 overs): 68.
