Robin Uthappa was elegance personified during his 52-ball 80 as he powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a convincing six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.
Uthappa struck nine fours and three sixes after a disciplined KKR attack restricted Mumbai Indians to 141 for five on a pitch that was not the best for batting. Battling woeful form, Yusuf Pathan remained unbeaten on 20.
Brisk start The Knight Riders were off to a brisk start, especially with Uthappa looking in good nick, and he hit a flurry of boundaries to take his side past 50 in the seventh over.
But just after Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir (14) recorded their fourth consecutive half-century partnership, the KKR skipper inside-edged a Harbhajan Singh delivery onto his stumps.
KKR was 68 for one midway into its innings and needed 74 runs from 60 balls, the number of wickets remaining giving the eastern side a clear edge.
Earlier, skipper Rohit Sharma struck a half-century and guided Mumbai Indians to a modest total.
In his 45-ball 51, Rohit struck two sixes and four boundaries to prop his team up after it struggled to force the pace for a major part of the innings.
Good final over Sunil Narine bowled a very economical final over, conceding just four runs besides dismissing Rohit.
Sent in to bat, Mumbai Indians lost its openers within the first five overs, with Morne Morkel and Shakib Al Hasan accounting for Chidhambaram Gautam and Lendl Simmons respectively.
Struggling against the pace of Morkel, Gautam charged down the track against the lanky pacer but failed to clear cover where Suryakumar Yadav took a good catch. Shakib Al Hasan bowled an arm-ball that kept low and disturbed Simmons’s leg stump as the batsman went for a heave.
After reaching 33 off 27 balls, Ambati Rayudu holed out at long-on, the successful bowler being Piyush Chawla.
Scoreboard
Mumbai Indians: L. Simmons b Shakib 12 (14b, 2x4), C.M. Gautam c Suryakumar b M. Morkel 8 (9b, 1x4), A. Rayudu c Suryakumar b Chawla 33 (27b, 3x4, 1x6), Rohit b Narine 51 (45b, 4x4, 2x6), C. Anderson c Chawla b M. Morkel 18 (12b, 1x4, 1x6), K. Pollard (not out) 10 (11b); A. Tare (not out) 2 (3b);
Extras (lb-1, w-5, nb-1): 7;
Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs): 141.
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Gautam), 2-35 (Simmons), 3-70 (Rayudu), 4-115 (Anderson), 5-138 (Rohit).
Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: M. Morkel 4-0-35-2, Umesh 3-0-24-0, Shakib 4-0-21-1, Narine 4-0-18-1, Chawla 4-0-32-1, Yusuf 1-0-10-0.
Kolkata Knight Riders: R. Uthappa b Simmons 80 (52b, 9x4, 3x6), G. Gambhir b Harbhajan 14 (18b, 1x4), M. Pandey b Harbhajan 14 (21b), Yusuf (not out) 20 (13b, 3x4), Shakib c Rayudu b Malinga 9 (8b, 1x4), R. ten Doeschate (not out) 0 (0b);
Extras (lb-1, w-4): 5;
Total (for four wkts. in 18.4 overs): 142.
Fall of wickets: 1-50 (Gambhir), 2-96 (Pandey), 3-116 (Uthappa), 4-138 (Shakib).
Mumbai Indians bowling: Malinga 3.4-0-30-1, Bumrah 3-0-23-0, Harbhajan 4-0-22-2, Ojha 4-0-25-0, Simmons 3-0-34-1, Pollard 1-0-7-0.
Man-of-the-match: R. Uthappa.
KKR won by six wickets with eight balls to spare.
