Kolkata: Manish Pandey led a late Kolkata Knight Riders fightback, but in the end Mumbai Indians had enough firepower with bat and ball to pull clear of the field and confirm they could not be caught at the top of the table with a nine-run win at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Needing 174, Kolkata could not put together partnerships of any worth and were stifled by what was essentially Mumbai’s A team. The result also left their final placing in the top four in the outcome of Sunday’s game between Punjab and Pune.
With the top order gone cheaply, Pandey (33, 33b, 2x4) sought to steer Kolkata home but the steady fall of wickets ramped up the pressure till he too was dismissed in the 18th over with a very gettable 25 needed from 17 balls. For Mumbai, wickets were shared, with Southee, Vinay Kumar and Hardik Pandya getting two apiece.
Kolkata got off to a poor start possible pinch-hitting opener Sunil Naraine bottled up by Southee before mishitting an attempted punch straight to a fielder.
Scorecard
Mumbai Indians: S. Tiwary run out (Yadav) 52, L. Simmons c Narine b Boult 0, R. Sharma lbw b Rajpoot 27, A. Rayudu st Uthappa b Kuldeep Yadav 63, K. Pollard c Pathan b Boult 13, H. Pandya (not out) 1, K. Pandya (not out) 0. Extras: (lb 11, w 6) 17. Total: (for 5 wkts, in 20 overs) 173.
FoW: 1-12, 2-69, 3-130, 4-168, 5-170.
Bowling: Boult 4-0-30-2 (2w), Grandhomme 2-0-16-0 (2w), Yadav 4-0-40-0, Narine 4-0-37-0 (1w), Kuldeep 3-0-25-1, Rajpoot 3-0-14-1
Kolkata Knight Riders: S. Narine c H. Pandya b Southee 0, C Lynn c sub b Vinay Kumar 26, G Gambhir c K. Sharma b Johnson 21, R Uthappa c R. Sharma b K. Sharma 2, M. Pandey c sub b H. Pandya 33, Y Pathan c H. Pandya b V. Kumar 20, Colin de Grandhomme b H. Pandya 29, K. Yadav c Rayudu b Southee 16, Umesh Yadav (not out) 4, Trent Boult (not out) 5. Extras: (lb 2, w 5, nb 1) 8. Total: (for 8 wkts, in 20 overs) 164
FoW: 1-0, 2-41, 3-53, 4-53, 5-87, 6-128, 7-149, 8-158
Bowling: Southee 4-1-39-2 (1nb, 1w), Johnson 4-0-30-1 (1w), K. Sharma 3-0-26-1, V. Kumar 3-0-31-2 (2w), K. Pandya 2-0-14-0, H. Pandya 4-0-22-2
