West Indian Dwayne Bravo and Robin Uthappa put together a wonderful partnership to take the Mumbai Indians to their first victory of the DLF Indian Premier League over the Kolkatta Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
After restricting Kolkatta to a modest total of 137, the Mumbai Indians set out to get on the board after a disappointing campaign thus far. They went in confidently but some fine bowling from Ishant Sharma, Ajit Agarkar and Ashok Dinda. Sanath Jayasuriya, who impressed with the ball, played a good knock until Ishant Sharma cleaned him up.
Within a few minutes they looked in a spot of bother at 25 for three with Ajinkya Rahane, Sanath Jayasuriya and Manish Pandey all back in the pavilion. The scoring gradually slowed down as Uthappa and Bravo looked to steady the innings. The Knight Riders could have had Uthappa but Debarata Das put down a powerfully hit shot.
Uthappa and Bravo took their time to settle. They pushed the scoring along with singles and when Sourav Ganguly brought on the slower bowlers, Bravo and Uthappa made the best of the opportunity and sent the ball flying towards the boundary boards.
Bravo took the lead and Uthappa just kept the West Indian company as the pair brought the required rate below six runs an over. Bravo didn’t put a foot wrong and hit one clean six and eight well struck boundaries. Uthappa, at the other end, played a run-a-ball innings of 37 to make sure that the Indians registered their first victory of the campaign; lifting Mumbai off the bottom of the points table.
In the first innings Shaun Pollock and Sanath Jayasuriya of the Mumbai Indians put a real dent in the Kolkatta Knight Riders’ innings to restrict them to 137 despite the best efforts of Debarata Das and Laxmi Ratan Shukla to revive the side.
Coming up against the Mumbai Indians, they expected to get back to winning ways against the bottom team of the IPL. They received a major bolt in the opening over with the Mumbai Indians’ stand in skipper Shaun Pollock getting Sourav Ganguly to edge one to Sanath Jayasuriya and then getting dangerman Brendon McCullum caught leg-before.
The wickets brought wicketkeeper-batsman, Debrata Das, and Aussie captain, Ricky Ponting to the crease. Ponting, having scored just 20 runs in the tournament, looked very uncomfortable. Das, at the other end, was the surprise package and he sent the Kolkatta crowd into raptures with a fiery display. He scored 29 off 20 balls, with one six and five fours, before he was caught attempting to clear the field off the bowling of West Indian, Dwayne Bravo.
Dhaval Kulkarni along with Jayasuriya and Bravo put the brakes on the innings by drying up the runs on a slow wicket. Jayasuriya bowled a priceless spell, taking three wickets off for fourteen; the best figures of the IPL so far. Laxmi Ratan Shukla played a cameo towards the end of the innings. He showed no respect for the bowlers as he sent the ball over the rope twice. The 26-year-old was instrumental in taking his side to a total of 137 for the loss of eight.
April 28, 2008
