Mumbai Indians continued to show their dominance at Wankhede Stadium as they won the match by 65 runs and bundled the batting line-up of Kolkata Knight Riders in just 18.2 overs. Sachin Tendulkar played a sensational knock of 48 runs which setup the tone for the match and Dwayne Smith also scored 47 runs to give Mumbai a good opening stand. Mitchell Johnson, Pragyan Ojha and Harbhajan Singh ran through the batting line-up of KKR with their brilliant bowling.
Here we bring to you the hits and flops from the match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders.
Hits
Sachin Tendulkar: Tendulkar displayed some master strokes as he smashed 48 runs off just 28 balls. He smacked five consecutive boundaries to Ryan McLaren in his first over and made sure that Mumbai were off to a good start. He was given the man-of-the match for his scintillating batting.
Lakshmipathy Balaji: Balaji did well with the ball as he gave away just seven runs in his three overs. He kept the pair of Tendulkar and Smith quite for long time and kept them under some pressure.
Dwayne Smith: Smith played a steady innings and put up a 93 run partnership alongside Tendulkar. He scored 47 runs off 53 balls that he faced and kept the price on his wicket before he was dismissed by Iqbal Abdullah.
Dinesh Karthik: Karthik played another scintillating cameo of 34 runs off just 18 balls. He was trying his best to push the score further but other batsmen kept losing their wickets which made it a bit tough for him to keep the scoring rate high.
Harbhajan Singh: Turbanator once again turned the tables for Mumbai as he picked up three wickets in his four overs for just 27 runs. He kept getting breakthroughs at regular intervals for Mumbai Indians which made it easy for Mumbai Indians to bundle up the KKR.
Mitchell Johnson: Johnson was brilliant with the ball as he picked up two wickets in his four overs. He dismissed Gautam Gambhir for duck in his first over and gave his side an early breakthrough.
Flops
Keiron Pollard: Pollard disappointed once again with the bat as he got out after scoring just four runs. He has not been amongst the runs this season and most of the time he has failed when he is supposed to go blasting over the opposition.
Ryan McLaren: McLaren bowled some awful balls which were sent to the boundary. Firstly he was hit all over by Tendulkar who smashed him for five fours in a row and in his final over, he gave away 25 runs which changed the complexion of the game.
Gautam Gambhir: His batting woes continued as he got out for a duck. Apart from that, Gambhir made some bad decisions on the field as he allowed Ryan McLaren to bowl the final over when the option of Balaji, who was in good rhythm, was very much open. His captaincy has been ordinary so far and he has failed to even get a right combination for KKR this season.
Yusuf Pathan: Pathan hit some massive hits but got out after scoring 13 runs off eight balls that he faced. With the early dismissal of openers, he should have kept bit of patience for few overs which he failed to do and paid the price.
Eoin Morgan: Morgan had displayed some very ordinary batting when it comes to pressure situations. His batting has been looking below par against the quality bowling attack and this is something KKR should look forward to.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network
