Gautam Gambhir continued his purple patch to lead the Kolkata Knight Riders to 174/5 against Mumbai Indians in their IPL game at the Wankhede here on Thursday. The KKR skipper scored a 45-ball 59 (6x4, 1x6) — his third half century in six games — to set the platform for Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan for some big hitting.
Gambhir shared a 69-run opening stand with Robin Uthappa 36 (20b, 1x4, 2x6) and then combined with Suryakumar Yadav — their third wicket partnership raising 44 runs — to negate the early blues. However, Mumbai Indians bowlers pulled things back in the middle.
Both teams were keen to bowl first but home skipper Rohit Sharma called it right. However, there was no initial movement like the previous games here and KKR openers Gambhir and Uthappa made merry. Mitchell McClenaghan (1/33) dropped a miscued skier of his own bowling when Gambhir was on eight. The southpaw responded with two boundaries off Tim Southee (2/38) in the next over.
Uthappa also took liking for the batting wicket to give KKR a quick start of 59/0 in the powerplays.
Uthappa was handed a reprieve on 35 after he survived a stumping chance off Harbh-ajan Singh (1/32) but he couldn’t the make most of it, holing out to Kieron Pollard at long on in the same over off a full toss.
Shakib Al Hasan (6) came and went to a short ball from Hardik Pandya as the hosts brought some control.
Gambhir completed a 39-ball 50 with a six and four off Krunal to get things moving after a brief lull in the middle overs. McClenaghan was brought back into the attack and he struck immediately to dismiss Gambhir, who mistimed to Pollard at mid off after the West Indian fielder had almost caught him short of crease on the previous ball. Southee dismissed Suryakumar to peg the visitors back to 130/4 in 16 overs.
Russell (22, 16b, 3x4) hit Bumrah for three boundaries in the 17th over to bring life again in the innings but he was castled by Southee in the next over.
Yusuf Pathan (19, 8b, 4x4) played a cameo but his partner Chris Lynn, playing his first game in this tournament, struggled with run-a-ball 10. Southee dropped consecutive catches at deep square leg as Lynn and Pathan got lucky but McClenaghan was the bowler at the receiving end thrice in the innings.
The visitors had strengthened their batting by bringing in Australia’s Chris Lynn in place of pacer Morne Morkel and included left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat as leg-spinner Piyush Chawla sat out.
The hosts were unchanged.
Scoreboard Kolkata Knight Riders: R. Uthappa c Pollard b Harbhajan 36, G. Gambhir c Pollard b McClenaghan 59, Shakib Al Hasan c Patel b Hardik 6, S. Yadav c & b Southee 21, A. Russell b Southee 22, C. Lynn (not out) 10, Y. Pathan (not out) 19. Extras: (lb1) 1. Total: (for 5 wkts, in 20 overs) 174. FoW: 1-69, 2-77, 3-121, 4-130, 5-145. Bowling: Southee 4-0-38-2, McClenaghan 4-0-33-1, Bumrah 4-0-34-0, Harbhajan 4-0-32-1, Hardik 2-0-15-1, Krunal 2-0-21-0.
