Knight Riders ease past hapless Mumbai

CUTTACK: It was a day when everything went the Kolkata Knight Riders' way.
First Kings XI Punjab gave their chances of clinching a play-off berth a boost by defeating one of the other contenders for the spot -- the Sunrisers Hyderabad -- earlier on the day in Hyderabad. They, KKR easily saw off Mumbai Indians in the evening clash to get to fourth on the points table.
KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir then won the toss and his spinners came good once again to restrict Mumbai Indians to 141 for 5 on a pitch that played slow with the odd ball keeping low also. To defend such a modest total, MI, who needed to win the tie at the Barabati Stadium here on Wednesday badly to stay afloat, either had to check the initial run flow or had to claim early breakthroughs. But they failed to do either of those as they went down by six wickets to be virtually dumped out of IPL 7.
In a T20 match, a good start does half the job. While MI openers C Gautam and Lendl Simmons once again failed to give the side a good start, their rival counterpart Gambhir and Robin Uthappa put the side in a commanding position with their 50-run first wicket stand which came off just 7.2 overs.
Although Gambhir was bowled while trying to chop one from Harbhajan Singh, Uthappa carried on with his attacking ways. The Karnataka batsman mixed caution with aggression, taking the singles and twos when boundaries were not easy to get. Hence, the pressure was never too much on KKR as they sailed smoothly. Uthappa was finally bowled by Simmons for 80, but by then KKR's winning script has already been well written.
KKR opted to play three spinners — Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al-Hasan — while keeping Jacques Kalllis on the bench.
Pacer Mornie Morkel drew first blood claiming opener C Gautam in the innings' third over. And with Gambhir introducing the spinners, runs dried up for MI. Shakib and Chawla were both on target, picking up opener Simmons and Ambati Rayudu as the duo perished in a bid to accelerate the run rate.
MI, however, could have ended up with a much lower total had not Yusuf Pathan, playing his 100th IPL match, dropped an easy skier offered by MI skipper Rohit Sharma. Sharma's 45-ball 51 with the help of four fours and two sixes helped the team post a respectable total. Rohit was on 11 when he got the reprieve and played some attacking cricket after that to give his bowlers something to defend.