Kolkata convincingly defeat Mumbai in Season opener!

Indian Premier League’s 7th edition finally took off with a clash between the winners of the previous two editions. Everyone expecting a close competition in this game was thoroughly disappointed as Mumbai Indian’s middle order collapsed like the proverbial House of Cards in their chase of Kolkata’s total of 163.
Despite previous expectations of a dry turner, Abu Dhabi turned out a beautiful green pitch with swing and bounce for the faster bowlers. Both the teams – Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders – rely heavily on spin bowling restrict their oppositions. That plan seemed to have backfired at the sight of a green pitch – for Mumbai Indians anyways.
Batting first, Kolkata lost captain Gambhir early on to a trademark Lasith Malinga Yorker. Promoted up the order, Manoj Tiwary replaced his captain and formed a formidable partnership with the experienced head Jacques Kallis. They put together a 131 run stand in 92 deliveries featuring some brilliant stroke play from both batsmen. It was another Malinga Yorker that out did Pandey. The big hitters – Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan, then followed without much effect. The three batsmen made a total contribution of 6 runs. Kallis kept the momentum as he shifted through to gears to reach 72 off 46 balls before getting caught in the deep to Anderson again off Malinga’s bowling. Suryakumar Yadav came out and took full advantage of Anderson’s final over to take KKR’s score to 163.
Mumbai Indians’ bowling – apart from speedsters Zaheer and Malinga – all averaged over 8 runs an over, once again reiterating the pitch’s assistance for the faster bowlers.
Michael Hussey and Aditya Tare opened the batting for Mumbai Indians as they tried to chase down 164 in 20 overs to start their title defence on a positive note. Morne Morkel put a spanner in those plans as he got the better of Hussey and Tare on multiple occasions in the opening overs. While Tare managed to get some respite off Vinay Kumar on the other end, the veteran Australian struggled before he was put out of his misery by the ever brilliant Narine. Tare and Rayudu then kept the scoreboard ticking, but there was a distinct lack of boundaries in their innings. Their combined score of 72 featured just 30 runs off boundaries. Rohit Sharma’s innings was no different – 6 out of 27. With boundaries difficult to come by, the run rate continued to mount, and by the time the big hitters Pollard and Corey Anderson came in, the run rate had sky rocketed and Narine was in full flow. Attempting big shots, Mumbai Indians lost 5 wickets in their last 5 overs for 21 runs. You cannot and do not win games like that.
Gautam Gambhir used his bowlers brilliantly. He kept 3 Narine overs and 2 Morkel overs for the final 7 overs. Vinay Kumar, Shakib Al Hasan and Kallis though not as impressive as the aforementioned bowlers, did their job of keeping boundaries at bay and Shakib even picked up the wicket of Aditya Tare.
Malinga and Narine both ended with 4-fors. It was only the 2nd time in IPL history that 2 bowlers ended up with 4 wicket halls. Mumbai Indians’ weak middle order – as I mentioned in my previous article – and the inability of their spinners to adjust to the green pitch, eventually lead to a convincing 41 run defeat.
Kallis’ match wining 72 run innings and a great catch to get Rohit Sharma in the deep, earner him the Man of the Match award on the night.
Kolkata 163 for 5 (Kallis 72, Pandey 64, Malinga 4-23) beat Mumbai 122 for 7 (Rayudu 48, Narine 4-20) by 41 runs