Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders – Indian Premier League 5 – Match Recap – Narine’s 4/15 propels Knight Riders to 32-run win over Mumbai
Riding on the strength of a superb bowling attack, spearheaded by mystery spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sunil-Philip-Narine-c91869, the Kolkata Knight Riders managed to claim a comprehensive 32-run victory over the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 16.
Recovering from what had been a shaky start, the Knight Riders managed to post a respectable score of 140, which could have proved to be an easy chase for the Mumbai Indians. However, the KKR bowlers did more than defend the total, and not a single bowlers
went wicket-less as the hosts found themselves all out at 108, and forced to relinquish the number two spot on the points table that they had briefly managed to steal from Gautam Gambhir’s side.
After losing the toss to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Harbhajan-Singh-c61453 who opted to field, Gambhir (playing three spinners, as opposed to the host team’s decision to employ three pacers) expressed the hope that the pitch would turn later, and while luck favoured the visitors in the end,
their own innings got off to a faltering start, on a pitch that did not have much to offer the batsmen.
Gambhir and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JH-Kallis-c1692, who was clean-bowled on duck. However, a 38-run
partnership between Gambhir (27) and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KA-Pollard-c1754 in the 9th over), they had managed to reach 44.
Tiwary persevered with Bangladeshi all-rounder http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DR-Smith-c1401 managed to break up the partnership, eliminating Shakib,
and Tiwary followed in the next over, caught out by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MM-Patel-c1987.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rajat-Bhatia-c83456 (12), followed by Narine (9) proved useful foils to Pathan as
he got the team up to a decent 140 by the end of 20 overs.
The Mumbi Indians’ innings got off to a steadier start than the Knight Riders’, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Iqbal-Abdulla-c1596 in the 6th over.
The hosts seemed to be progressing at a steady pace, as Tendulkar and wicketkeeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KD-Karthik-c1780 (21) established a steady 34-run stand. However, it came to an abrupt halt by the end of the 11th over, courtesy Narine – the young spinner’s
delivery baffled the veteran batsman, bouncing off both bat and pad to hit the off-stump.
With Tendulkar’s dismissal, the remainder of the top 6 crumbled under the force of the Knight Riders’ bowling attack. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ambati-Rayudu-c1007 (11), who followed him to the crease,
was stumped by McCullum off Shakib.
Kallis chipped in with a superb 17th over, during which he dismissed both Pollard (8) and Smith (0), and the 18th over by Narine was equally phenomenal – Sharma was caught out by McCullum, followed by skipper Harbhajan Singh who was
caught out at long-on, reducing the Mumbai Indians to 104 for 8.
With RP Singh (3) and Malinga (8) at the crease, the Mumbai Indians required 36 from 12, and the penultimate over, bowled by Balaji, resulted in another wicket, this time Malinga, who was caught out at the long-on boundary. Narine had the last over, and
rounded off his already spectacular performance with a last wicket – http://www.senore.com/Cricket/RP-Singh-c87028, caught on the deep midwicket boundary by Abdulla.
The KKR bowlers picked up one wicket after another, and the Mumbai Indians finished at 108, all out – 32 runs short of the target. Narine won the Player of the Match award for his stunning 4 for 15, while Kallis and Balaji both picked up two scalps each.
Shakib and Abdulla grabbed one apiece, and the Knight Riders gained 2 vital points which brought them up, once again, to the second spot on the points table.
With playoffs due to begin on May 22, and just one match left to play, Gambhir’s men will be looking to repeat their match-winning performance in their game against the Pune http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Symonds-c44611 Sahara Stadium in Pune.
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