Kolkata Knight Riders sink Mumbai, begin IPL 8 with seven-wicket win

Powered by an enterprising half century from skipper Gautam Gambhir and a cameo from Surya Yadav, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders trounced Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in the eighth IPL opener at the Eden Gardens here on Wednesday.

Young gun Yadav (46 not out; 20b, 1x4, 5x6) and big hitting Yusuf Pathan (14; 12b, 1x4, 1x6) took KKR to a winning 170/3 with nine balls to spare as Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma's elegant unbeaten 98 went in vain.

The visitors had notched up 170/3 earlier in the evening before a 50,000-plus crowd at the giant colosseum.

Yadav and Pathan were involved in a rollicking 49-run stand of only 25 balls to kick start the Knights' title defence with a bang.

Replying to Mumbai Indians' formidable innings, KKR had a faltering start losing last year's top scorer Robin Uthappa (9) with only 13 on the board in the third over.

The dashing opener had scored an incredible 660 runs to pilot the Knights to their second IPL crown last year.

But the gutsy Gambhir joined hands with young gun Manish Pandey to take the advantage away from the Mumbai side.

Pandey, who enjoyed a reprieve, was aggressive from the outset, while Gambhir started off cautiously, and then came up with some scintillating strokes.

The 85-run partnership was broken in the 12th over when Pandey (40; 24b, 2x4, 3x6) perished to a catch attempting a slog-sweep.

Gambhir (57; 43b, 7x4, 1x6) rode on three dropped chances, to race to his 50 in the 14th over. He, however, departed in the next over.

Needing 38 runs from the last four overs, Surya Yadav took the hosts closer to victory hitting three lusty sixes of Jasprit Bumrah to make the chase a run-a-ball affair.

Fittingly, it was Yadav who hit the winning runs with an elegant boundary through the extra cover off Vinay Kumar.

Earlier, riding on a brilliant unbeaten 98 by skipper Rohit Sharma, Mumbai scored a formidable 168/3 after put in to bat first.

In trouble at 37/3 inside the sixth over, Mumbai Indians took the battle into the opposition's camp with the elegant Rohit (65b, 12x4, 4x6) stitching an unbeaten 131-run partnership with Corey Anderson (55; 41b, 4x4, 3x6).

Continuing his good run at the hallowed stadium where he had scored a record shattering 264 while playing for India in November, Rohit was at his elegant best hitting boundaries at will.

With the duo of Anderson and Rohit upping the ante the pressure on the hosts was evident as they spilled three catches. The visitors clobbered 88 in the last six overs to set the Knights a challenging asking rate of 8.45.

The Knights' trump card Sunil Narine, bowling with a remodelled action, was wicketless conceding 28 in his four overs.

South African pacer Morne Morkel was pick of the bowlers with figures of 2/18.

Gautam Gambhir during post-match presentation: "I think credit should go to the entire unit. It was a tough total to chase and the way we chased it was great. It was a very good wicket, but we never knew how it was going to behave. It was a pretty new wicket in Kolkata and the way Morne bowled, it was exceptional. It shows a lot of character and the mental toughness, so the credit should go to the bowling unit. Suryakumar Yadav as I said during the toss, he is an important player and he showed us why it was right to make him the vice-captain today before the game. We loved the support here today. They always turn up in huge numbers (referring to the Eden Gardens crowd)."

Rohit Sharma during post-match presentation: "The kind of wicket it was, we were probably 10-15 runs short. We should have done better with the ball though. We didn't execute our plans well. Let's hope the guys can pick up from this and come out in a positive manner. The pace was good. The wicket was very good. It is a trend in Kolkata as the pitch is always good to bat. We just have to go back and need to make a good comeback. Doesn't please to be on the losing side, but let's hope the guys will learn from them. Once we go back to Mumbai, we will figure things out."

Man of the Match: Kolkata's Morne Morkel bags the MoM award for his pivotal bowling figures of 2/18 in his four-over spell.

Morne Morkel during post-match presentation: "I think with the new ball that there was a little bit of swing. The rhythm helped and we did well with the ball. It is fantastic to come here and play in front of the crowd. It's great to start off with a win. It does lift me and sometimes I have to catch my breath circling around my mark. Definitely, the crowd gives us the extra edge and the extra energy. As a bowling unit, it was good to bowl first. Out first outing as a group was great. We expected the wicket to turn a little bit more, but the way we played in the tricky bit on conditions summed up our night."

Teams(from):

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir(c), Robin Uthappa(wk), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Suryakumar Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Sunil Narine, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav, Andre Russell, Kuldeep Yadav, Pat Cummins, Johan Botha, Azhar Mahmood, Brad Hogg, Sumit Narwal, Sheldon Jackson, Aditya Garhwal, Kishan Cariappa, Vaibhav Rawal, Veer Pratap Singh  

Mumbai Indians: Aaron Finch, Aditya Tare(wk), Rohit Sharma(c), Corey Anderson, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Shreyas Gopal, Harbhajan Singh, Vinay Kumar, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah, Pragyan Ojha, Lendl Simmons, Unmukt Chand, Parthiv Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Marchant de Lange, Pawan Suyal, Mitchell McClenaghan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Aiden Blizzard, Akshay Wakhare, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Hardik Pandya, Jagadeesha Suchith