Led by a fierce onslaught by Brendon McCullum (81, 60b, 10x4, 2x6) and an equally delightful undertaking by Mahela Jayawardene (56, 36b, 9x4), Kochi Tuskers Kerala chased down a target of 183 to beat Mumbai Indians by eight wickets — its first victory in the IPL competition — on Friday.
Sachin Tendulkar's first century in Twenty20 cricket turned out to be in vain as Tuskers crossed the finish line with six balls remaining.
Lasith Malinga gave the home team a flicker of hope by clean-bowling Jayawardene and McCullum in his second spell. But the Tuskers had sufficient fire-power in the form of left-hander Ravindra Jadeja and Brad Hodge.
After openers McCullum and Jayawardene had put on 128 for the first wicket, Hodge and Jadeja kept up the momentum; the latter, in fact, hammered two towering sixes to seal victory in grand style for his team.
Early fireworks
A whole array of ground and aerial shots from Tendulkar and Ambati Rayudu had provided the early fireworks at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday. Right from the moment he marked his block in his first match after the World Cup final, Tendulkar had seemed a man made of sterner stuff.
A firm push to the straight field boundary off left-arm seamer R.P. Singh raised the energy levels in the arena.
Determined to find ways to power the ball to the boundary as often as possible in the opening Power Play overs, Tendulkar had a few close escapes — he missed the ball on the drive outside off and survived a couple of leg-before appeals.
He was far from being fluent, a slash over backward point showed a touch of desperation, especially after seeing his partner Davy Jacobs struggling to make contact with the ball.
A front foot drive off Thisara Perera and an edge off the same bowler provided the thrust as the home team touched 44 for no loss off the first 36 legal balls.
Clearly, there were two distinct parts to Mumbai Indians' first home match.
It was least inspiring in the initial overs, with Jacobs unable to come to terms with the somewhat sluggish nature of the pitch, leaving Tendulkar to do the bulk of the scoring.
Following two defeats, Kochi Tuskers had announced a team with three changes, dropping S. Sreesanth, V.V.S. Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan.
The replacements were left-hand batsman Kedar Jadhav, all-rounder Perera and off-spinner Ramesh Powar.
Mumbai Indians replaced James Franklin with Andrew Symonds.
The Tuskers threatened to achieve a breakthrough in the opening burst of three overs by R.P. Singh.
He may have been a trifle unlucky on one occasion when he appealed for leg before against Tendulkar, but with his ability to maintain a straight line and to curve the ball into the right-handers, he managed to keep the run rate under check.
The introduction of medium-pacer Raiphy Gomez produced a wicket for the Tuskers when Jacobs played all over a slower delivery and lost his off stump.
Nonetheless, the opening-wicket stand delivered a solid 61 runs, an ideal platform for the Mumbai Indians' strong middle order to go after the bowling in the second set of 10 overs. Rayudu was a key player in Mumbai Indians' comfortable victory in the previous match against Royal Challengers Bangalore and his arrival electrified the proceedings.
Rayudu was splendid in clearing the ball over long-on, cover and the straight field, especially off Gomez. In fact, three big sixes were his opening scoring shots.
He dealt with left-arm spinner Jadeja and off-spinner Powar with power-packed shots that offered no chance for even the deep field.
He dominated the second-wicket stand that delivered 116 runs before running himself out in an attempt to afford Tendulkar a chance to attain his century.
Tendulkar gave himself the opportunity to reach the milestone after he struck Perera for a four and six with shots that was evocative of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The attention was riveted on Tendulkar in the last over and he duly completed his century by scoring 10 runs. But even his splendid effort turned out to be for a lost cause.
Scores
Mumbai Indians: D. Jacobs b Gomez 12 (21b, 1x4), S. Tendulkar (not out) 100 (66b, 12x4, 3x6), A. Rayudu (run out) 53 (33b, 3x4, 4x6) , K. Pollard (not out) 0; Extras (b-11, w-6): 17; Total (for two wkts in 20 overs): 182.
Fall of wickets: 1-61, 2-177.
Kochi Tuskers bowling: R.P. Singh 4-0-15-0, Vinaykumar 4-0-48-0, Perera 4-0-38-0, Gomez 3-0-29-1, Jadeja 4-0-29-0, Powar 1-0-12-0.
Kochi Tuskers Kerala: B. McCullum b Malinga 81 (60b, 10x4, 2x6), M. Jayawardene b Malinga 56 (36b, 9x4), R. Jadeja (not out) 25 (11b, 2x4, 2x6), B. Hodge (not out) 11 (7b, 2x4); Extras (lb-3, w-8): 11; Total (for two wkts in 19 overs): 184.
Fall of wickets: 1-128, 2-156.
Mumbai Indians bowling: Malinga 4-0-42-2, Patel 3-0-15-0, Murtaza 4-0-37-1, Pollard 3-0-43-0, Harbhajan 4-0-33-0, Satish 1-0-11-0.
Man-of-the-Match: Brendon McCullum.
