IPL 2014

KKR vs MI

KKR kick off with thumping win

KKR cruised to a big victory over Mumbai Indians in the maiden game of IPL 2014. After winning the toss, Kolkata has opted to bat first. In the first 15 minutes of match, it seemed that Gautam Gambhir has made wrong decision when he himself facing difficulties with seam attack of Mumbai Indians in the lights of Malinga and Zaheer Khan. After dismissal of Gambhir, both Jacques Kallis & Manish Pandey had manoeuvre the innings subsequently  placed KKR in a strong position. It was a slow going early on but both have shifted the gears start looking for boundaries and big hits and they did in style. Kallis has regularly faced the questions over the pacing of his innings in T20Is. Kallis answered his critics by playing composed innings and scored 72 off 46. On the other hand Manish Pandey has also played his part by scoring 64 off 53. Suryakumar Yadav played cameo and a couple of innovative strokes to lift KKR  to 163. Malinga produced 4 wickets and continue his legacy that he is one of the stringent bowler to face off.

Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma, two of the stalwarts of Mumbai over the years, tried to up the scoring but against an attack that didn't give away much on a surface where the ball wasn't coming on, the asking rate keep on increasing. To hunt for achieving the required rate, they were losing the wickets at quick succession. Power hitters like Pollard and Anderson both have succumbed in front of quality attack. Charismatic Sunil Narine who ended with figures of 4 for 20 to ensure a reverberation win for Kolkata Knight Riders.