IPL: Mumbai Indians Beat Kolkata Knightriders To Go Second

Kolkata Knight Riders' had their six match winning streak finally put to an end by Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens. Rohit Sharma produced a batting performance as pleasing and pulverizing as one could ever hope to see in the IPL. The KKR line up could not get the big hits against a disciplined bowling performance by MI as they went down by 27 runs.

Harbhajan Singh won the toss and had no second thoughts in batting first. Herschelle Gibbs finally recovered from a finger injury, and promptly joined Tendulkar at the top of the order. Sachin though got dismissed for a cheap score. Rohit Sharma came in at number 3, and started timing the ball well. Gibbs who seemed to be feeling his way in at the start, too got into his groove. The two of them then went about dismantling the KKR attack. Rohit was especially lethal, while Gibbs chose to play second fiddle. Their partnership yielded 167 runs, as Rohit stroked to his first IPL century. Gibbs too went to a half century, as MI finally hope to have settled at the top of the order. Sunil Narine who was spinning a web around Gibbs in the first three overs too got punished in the last over.

KKR chase had a disastrous beginning as their talismanic skipper - Gambhir got bowled by Munaf Patel. Manvinder Bisla coming in at the top in place of McCullum failed to do any better. Kallis and Tiwary stopped the slide and began to resurrect the innings in the face of some nagging bowling. The latter however got out for 27 and in came Yusuf Pathan - the only man who could have won them the match. Pathan and Kallis did play till the end of the innings, and managed a big hit or two. But the MI bowling was too accurate and the task a bit too stiff for them to come anywhere close to the target.

The win puts MI in the safe zone, and in the hunt for a second place position.