IPL 9, Match 5 Review: Rohit Sharma leads Mumbai to their first win

Mumbai Indian registered their first victory of the season after they beat the highly challenging Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets at the Eden Grounds, Kolkata. Captain Rohit Sharma struck back to form at his happy hunting ground as he anchored the chase with an unbeaten knock of 84 off just 54 balls.

Chasing a highly challenging target of 188 runs to win, Mumbai began positively with skipper Rohit and Parthiv Patel putting up a quick half-century stand for the first wicket before Patel (23 from 20 balls) depart just a ball before the end of the powerplay.

MI continued to experiment with Hardik Pandya and sent him at No. 3. But, the young sensation couldn’t do anything significant and fell cheaply. Mitchell McClenaghan was promoted after Pandya and he did his job with a bursting cameo of 20 from just 8 balls, that gave MI the much needed push at a crucial point. There was, however, nothing much to worry at that point as Rohit Sharma, was batting brilliantly having found his touch and kept the asking rate in check.

The match that looked anybody’s game at the halfway stage completely tilted towards Mumbai Indians after the game changer Jos Buttler arrived at the crease. The English wicketkeeper batsman teamed up with the skipper and smashed 41 off just 22 balls. His innings laced with 3 fours and 3 sixes took MI closer to the target in no time. Buttler, however, could not survive till the winning moment as he lost his wicket in the penultimate over when MI needed just 13 runs off the last 9 balls.

It didn’t take much time for Rohit to finish the job as he whacked three back to back boundaries on the remaining three balls of the over to virtually finish the match with only 1 run required from the last over. Kieron Pollard completed the formality and MI earned their first points of the tournament.

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir (64 from 54 balls) and Manish Pandey (52 from 29 balls) along with Andre Rusell (36 from 17 balls) clobbered the Mumbai Indians bowler to take KKR to a formidable total batting first.

Opener Robin Uthappa (8 from 10 balls) lost his wicket in the 4^th over. But, Mumbai Indians bowlers did not find any further success with the ball as the KKR skipper and his young partner (Pandey) piled on a 100-run stand for the 2nd wicket. After Uthappa’s departure, Gambhir did not waste time and switched on the aggression mode immediately in the next over hitting back to back boundaries against Southee. Pandey also got in the rhythm and scored freely.

The right-hand, left-hand combination was working well as the MI bowlers regularly gave away loose deliveries waiting to be punished. Both the batsmen emphasized on the importance of rotating the strike, keeping the pressure on MI. Left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith created a chance in the 9th over after a strong flick from Gambhir went straight Rohit who failed to hold on to it and spilled the catch. MI were desperately looking for a breakthrough but when the chance arrived they were careless.

Gambhir, who had slowed down after a quick start, was the first to reach his half-century which came in the 12th over off 40 balls. Pandey also raced to his fifty off just 26 balls in the following over. However, unfortunate, Pandey could not thrive any longer as he lost his wicket to offie Harbhajan Singh in the next over just after completing the hundred-run stand.

His departure brought an even more dangerous Andre Russell to the crease. The hard-hitting all-rounder began to pummel the bowler from the word go and smashed 36 off 17 balls at a strike rate of over 200 The last five overs saw 46 runs coming off it as KKR team total climbed up to 187/5 after 20 overs.

Brief Scores: 

KKR – 187/5 in 20 overs (G Gambhir 64, M Pandey 52; M McClenaghan 2/25) 

MI – 188/4 in 19.1 overs (RG Sharma 84; P Chawla 1/29)

Man of the Match: Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians)

How did Twitter react to the match? – Twitter Reactions: Rohit Sharma special takes MI through at Eden Gardens