Chasing a healthy total of 155, Sachin Tendulkar shared two crucial partnerships to ensure they achieved the target with more than an over to spare. S Tiwary made 33 while S Dhawan chipped in with 23.

Earlier, Chris Gayle notched up a stroke-filled 75 in his first IPL match this year to power Kolkata Knight Riders to a competitive 155 for three.

The West Indies skipper slipped into the groove smoothly during his 60-ball knock, that included two sixes and seven fours, besides forging two fruitful half century partnerships.

The left-handed Gayle gave the Knight Riders a flying start of 70 runs with skipper Sourav Ganguly, who made 31 in 34 balls.

After Ganguly’s dismissal, Mumbai Indians bowlers got their act together to apply brakes for a while before Gayle opened up in his inimitable style in the company of Owais Shah (31 in 23 balls) to give the visitors a fighting total.

Scoreboard

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Chris Gayle lbw Khan 75

Sourav Ganguly b Harbhajan Singh 31

Owais Shah b Khan 31

Angelo Mathews not out 3

Extras (b 6, lb 3, w 6) 15

Total (for three wickets in 20 overs) 155

Fall of wickets: 1-70 (Ganguly, 10.6 overs), 2-152 (Shah, 19.2), 3-155 (Gayle, 19.6)

Bowling:

Lasith Malinga 4-0-28-0

Zaheer Khan 4-0-27-2

Ryan McLaren 4-0-38-0

Dwayne Bravo 4-0-36-0

Harbhajan Singh 4-0-17-1

Mumbai Indians:

Shikhar Dhawan c Ganguly b Kartik 23

Sachin Tendulkar not out 71

Saurabh Tiwary c Ganguly b Sharma 30

Keiron Pollard lbw Sharma 7

R. Sathish not out 21

Extras (w 4) 4

Total (for three wickets in 18.3 overs) 156

Fall of wickets: 1-61 (Dhawan, 6.5 overs), 2-117 (Tiwary, 13.6), 3-129 (Pollard, 15.5)

Bowling:

Shane Bond 3-0-31-0

Ishant Sharma 4-0-44-2

Chris Gayle 4-0-31-0

Murali Kartik 4-0-21-1

Angelo Mathews 3.3-0-29-0

Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders, who chose to bat

Result: Mumbai Indians won by seven wickets

Umpires: Sanjay Hazare and Simon Taufel (Australia)

TV umpire: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)

Match referee: Yashpal Sharma