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Mumbai Indians beat Knight Riders by nine runs

Duminy smashed four sixes in 37 balls and helped lift Mumbai from 74-4 in the 12^th over to 148-6 at Buffalo Park.

‘I thought J.P, set it up for us nicely. If he didn’t bat through to the end it would have been different,’ said Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar, who hit 34 off 30 balls.

Mumbai then restricted Kolkata to 139-6, with Khan bowling openers Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle in the first three overs.

The left-arm India seamer dismissed Ganguly for 0 on the fourth ball of the innings after the opener hit the ball onto his stumps. Gayle then bottom-edged a slower delivery from Khan 10 balls later, and Kolkata was 8-2.

Kolkata recovered after a third-wicket partnership of 89 between Brad Hodge (73) and Morne van Wyk (32). Hodge blasted five fours and three sixes in 60 balls, while Van Wyk hit three boundaries in 35 balls.

Van Wyk was caught by Duminy in the deep off medium-pacer Graham Napier to leave Kolkata on 97-3 in the 15^th over. Laxmi Shukla was bowled by Khan after missing a full toss 22 runs and three overs later.

Hodge was dismissed in the 19^th over, run out by Duminy’s throw to wicketkeeper Pinal Shah.

Needing 19 runs in the final over, Brendon McCullum was caught in the deep by Lasith Malinga off Abhishek Nayar for 5 to end the chase.

‘When someone like Malinga bowls well at the death, as he did, it becomes difficult to score boundaries,’ McCullum said.

Teams:

Kolkata: Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge, Sourav Ganguly, Morne van Wyk, Wriddhiman Saha, Laxmi Shukla, Agit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda.

Mumbai: Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar, Jean-Paul Duminy, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Tiwary, Pinal Shah, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Graham Napier.