The sight of Shoaib Akhtar steaming in is a scary sight for the batsmen, apart from testing their reaction time. Ishant Sharma bringing the ball down from a height is a daunting prospect. Without runs to defend, these two weapons turned into blanks for Kolkata Knight Riders.
Sanath Jayasuriya steadied Mumbai Indians’ nerves with blistering strokeplay (48 not out, 17b), flicking sixes to mid-wicket like only he can to rattle the bowlers, reducing the run chase to a no-contest as the home team sauntered home by eight wickets in its DLF-Indian Premier League’s ninth round match at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.
Akhtar was brought down to earth after the minor high of Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket off the fifth ball, as Jayasuriya’s counter-punching resulted in 29 runs in over number two. From then on, it was a cruise all the way for Mumbai and it overhauled Kolkata’s 67 — the lowest score in the IPL so far — in just 5.3 overs.
Shaun Pollock showed Mumbai the way with an outstanding four-over spell of swing bowling, finishing with three for 12 after the visitors were asked to bat.
Tendulkar chipped in with four catches as Dwayne Bravo (two for 13), Rohan Raje (two for 16) and Dominic Thornely (two for seven) joined the party.
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