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Mumbai Indians outclassed SRK-owned Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs in an IPL match held at East London on Friday (May 1). Electing to bat first, Mumbai Indians got to a shaky start by losing quick wickets at the top. But South African batsman J.P. Duminy held the innings together by scoring 52 off 37 balls. Duminy's brisk unbeaten knock includes four huge sixes and a four, which helped Mumbai Indians to score 148 for six in their 20 overs.
In reply, troubled Knight Riders could score 139 for six in their allotted 20 overs. Brad Hodge (73) from Knight Riders tried hard to win the match for his side but in the end failed to do so. With this defeat, Kolkata Knight Riders have lost five matches in the tournament so far. The Kolkata team decided to send Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle as openers, but the change did not work. Both the openers became the victims of Zaheer Khan (3-31) with two runs on the board.
After that, Morne Van Wyk (32) helped Hodge to recover Knight Riders' innings. After the dismissal of Van Wyk, Zaheer took the wicket of Laxmi Shukla as his third victim. All hopes of Knight Riders ended when Hodge got run out in the 19th over. Earlier, Knight Riders bowlers showed some good skills to contain the strong batting line-up of Mumbai Indians. Ajit Agarkar took the wicket of Mumbai skipper Sachin Tendulkar (34 off 30) while Ashok Dinda removed Sanath Jayasuriya (6). But JP Duminy remained till the end to post a defendable total.
