Internet Desk: Half centuries from skipper Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey lifted Kolkata Knight Ridres to 187/5 against Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match at Eden Gardens today.
Gambhir led by example with 64 from 52 balls (4×4, 1×6) and the skipper got a fine support from talented youngster Manish Pandey who scored a rollicking 52 from 29 balls to set the momentum in a 100-run partnership from 60 balls.
After Pandey’s departure, Andre Russell played a nice cameo of 36 from 17 balls studded with four sixes and one four as KKR with 163/2 in 17 overs were on course for a 200-total but the Knights could manage just 24 runs and lost three wickets in last three overs as MI pulled back in the death.
It was the Mumbai Indians fielding that severely let them down as Gambhir got reprieves twice, while on 30 and 55 as their bowling struggled to give breakthroughs.
On a pitch that looked perfect for batting, Mumbai Indians put Kolkata Knight Riders who were in for a watchful start with six runs from two overs but the opening pair of Gambhir and Uthappa quickly changed gear smashing Tim Southee for 13 runs in the third over.
McClenaghan gave the breakthrough in the next over with Uthappa (8) mistiming one to be easily taken by Kieron Pollard but Mumbai Indians could not pull back from there on with some ordinary bowling down the leg.
Gambhir smashed Southee for successive boundaries in the next over and the youngster Pandey also got into the act picking length eaisly and displaing some exiquisite strokemaking.
Nothing going in their way, Gambhir was dropped on 30 by Sharma with the ball going through the skipper’s hands in Suchith’s first over and KKR never looked back since then.
MI spin duo of Suchith and Harbhajan struggled to get their act together with a sloppy fielding as the home side did not mind with Pandey also making his intention clear smashing some big sixes.
Pandey raced to his halfcentury in 26 balls, while Gambhir was a little slower notching the mark in 39 balls as he also got a second reprieve when Jasprit Bumrah dropped him on 55 from his own bowling putting down a regulation catch.
Earlier Mumbai Indians made three changes to their XI that lost by nine wickets to debutants Pune Supergiants by bringing in Tim Southee, J Suchith and Parthiv Patel in place of Lendl Simmons, R Vinay Kumar and Shreyas Gopal.
Kolkata Knight Riders opted to give Sunil Narine some rest after joining the team last night as they picked Kuldeep Yadav in place of Umesh Yadav making it a three-spin line up with Brad Hogg and Piyush Chawla.