IPL 2 Game 23: MI Make It against KKR

Sreelata YellamrazuMay 2 2009

Though Sachin Tendulkar provided the early start and impetus, it was JP Duminy’s effort at the end of the innings that allowed the Mumbai Indians to score the valuable runs that made the difference from Brad Hodge’s innings for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

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Sachin once again lead with his bat, scoringthirty-four runs before the MI’s innings became a bit of a drawl. It needed the fifty-two run innings from Jean Paul Duminy before Mumbai could heave a sigh of relief. His four sixes in the latter half of the innings meant that Mumbai has pumped a near half century in the final five overs and left the Knight Riders feeling a little frail chasing 148.

If KKR felt frail, it was because they lost wickets early that nearly derailed their train once again. The Knight Riders lost two key wickets inside the first three overs of their innings of chase and at eight for two with Chris Gayle and Sourav Ganguly in the hut courtesy Zaheer Khan, there was little hope for Shah Rukh Khan’s men.

But the consolidation and the fight back did come in the form of Australian Brad Hodge. His seventy-three from sixty balls was perhaps the single best innings of the match, but perhaps it would have felt more valuable if the KKR team actually won the match.

But tight bowling from the Mumbai Indians kept the match in their control despite Hodge’s innings and his partnership with Morne van Wyk who made thirty-two himself. KKR needed just thirty-one in the final three overs and twenty-three overs from twelve balls, but with the pressure building with the team needing twenty from the final over, Sachin Tendulkar had no qualms in handing Abhishek Nayyar to bowl the final over, knowing well that his plan to use his frontline bowlers earlier had paid off in building the pressure. Mumbai won by nine runs, but it appeared Mumbai appeared to have been in control through despite KKR feeling they had let slip yet another.

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IPL 2 Game 18: Royals Pull One Finally, Daredevils Cough

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IPL 2 Game 12: Charging to Down the Mumbai Indians

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