But within two weeks of action in this edition, the equation has changed dramatically. The West Indian registered fastest ever fifty for a Mumbai Indian player.
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Pollard clobbered six sixes – including three in a row to finish off the match – as Mumbai moved into third place on the points table.
Last time, when the two sides met at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, Daredevils faced a humiliating defeat against Gambhir’s men, as they failed to cross 100 while batting first. The England batsman understandably left the ground stunned.
Skipper Gautam Gambhir was lucky in the second over of the match as he tried to pull a Mitchell McClenaghan delivery that wasn’t short enough to pull but McClenaghan made a mess of it as he dropped a skier which was hit at him. However, Harbhajan Singh has been slightly off colour and he will be hoping to make amends.
Kolkata Knight Riders: 174 for five in 20 overs (Gautam Gambhir 59, Robin Uthappa 36; Tim Southee 2/38).
As did Suryakumar Yadav’s (21) brief but eventful stay at the crease.
The return of Sunil Narine with a remodelled bowling action has added extra teeth to the slow bowling department, although bowling second with the possibility of dew fall could be a hard proposition for him and the likes of Piyush Chawla and Shakib Al Hasan. The onus fell on debutante Sam Billings and Karun Nair.
In the bowling department, consistent performances from most of the bowlers have ensured that Kolkata have hardly had to face stiff targets. He slammed the ball to different parts of the Kotla including 3 boundaries and 2 sixes before being removed by a zinger from Umesh Yadav.
Kolkata had picked up a total of 11 wickets during the first six overs in their previous six matches, and that trend continued at Feroz Shah Kotla today.
Umesh Yadav and Andre Russell took three wickets each for the visiting side. The weather is expected to be dry, but temperatures could soar past 40 degrees Celsius. They will aim to put up a similar show against Mumbai.
Nair struck nine fours and a six, while Billings looked very much at home as he brought up his half-century by launching one of his two sixes into the crowd before Brathwaite weighed in with some brutal blows in a sparkling cameo. Jerome Taylor, Lasith Malinga’s replacement, joined the squad on Wednesday but it will be interesting to see if he is drafted into the playing eleven straight away.
Pollard clumped three maximums in Rajagopla Sathish’s 16th over and three more in Jaydev Unadkat’s 17th, the last of which rubber-stamped Mumbai’s victory and took his stand with the classy Sharma to 72 from 30 balls.
– Mumbai Indians have beaten KKR 12 times in IPL, the joint most for a team against a particular opposition. Against Mumbai, Knight Riders scored 52 off the last six overs, leaving themselves with a sub-par score to defend. Before this game Gautham Gambir, Kolkata Knight Riders skipper said that he fear for Rohit than Virat Kohli as a skipper.
“Buttler was out early in the first game but played a match winning innings in the second game”.
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There has been no outstanding bowler for KKR so far as they have re-jigged the attack constantly. But we have plans. We got to bowl well as a unit, we have a quality bowling line-up.
