Kolkata: A fantastic batting by Rohit Sharma (84 off 54 balls) followed by a quickfire 41 off 22 balls by Jos Buttler helped Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets in the Indian premier league match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Rohit Sharma, who bagged the Man-of-the-Match award for his outstanding innings, said: "It’s a high-scoring ground anyway. We have played enough cricket to that. They got 10-15 runs extra but we held them up pretty tight in the end. They were up for that 200 mark but our bowlers pulled it back well.”
“Ricky's idea of promoting McClenghan was to use the left-hander with legspinners bowling. He being a power-hitter we wanted to use that. We started well with the ball, our fielding needs to improve a little bit. We have seen Buttler play those kinds of innings again and again for England. Today, it was my duty, responsibility to bat till the end,” said the Mumbai Indians skipper.
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir, who, too, played a superb innings (64 off 52 balls) said, "We needed to take wickets all the time, but we didn't start well with the ball. We missed our lengths quite often. Credit to Mumbai, they accelerated at the right time. If someone bats through, it gets difficult. We thought that spinners would be more effective than the pacers. They just played well. I can't point out one or two things."
