Kolkata sink, Mumbai swim

MUMBAI: Aiden Blizzard and James Franklin played the roles of Terminators as Mumbai Indians eliminated Kolkata Knight Riders in the Eliminator match at Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. MI emerged victors by four wickets in a closely fought match and will meet Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifier-2 at Chennai on Friday.

Thanks to Blizzard’s hurricane knock of 51 and lefthander Franklin’s mature innings at the end, MI cantered home with four deliveries to spare. Franklin repeated his Kolkata show for the second successive match.

The excitement was palpable when Mumbai Indians were in mid-innings crisis in pursuit of a modest 148 for victory after Ryan ten Doeschate had pulled KKR out of woods with a swashbuckling 49-ball 70 not out. KKR did well to recover from 20 for four to score 147/7 in 20 overs. MI’s Munaf Patel (3/27) was declared Man-of-the-Match.

Blizzard and Sachin Tendulkar (36) set the ball rolling with a blistering opening stand with 50 coming off 29 balls in stark contrast to KKR’s faltering start. Brett Lee was hammered for 14 runs in the first over and that set up MI’s brisk run-chase.

Blizzard and Tendulkar conjured up 81 runs off 7.5 overs. But after Blizzard brought up his 50 with an extra over six off Lee, he fell to the same bowler the next delivery.

KKR got a bonus wicket when a promoted Rohit Sharma ran himself out without facing a single delivery.

Tendulkar hit Jacqus Kallis to mid-on and Sharma ran wildly. KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir’s accurate throw had Sharma short of crease at the non-striker’s end. Tendulkar’s dismissal in the ninth over became critical for MI. Kallis’ tricky bouncer had Tendulkar in two minds. The batsman top-edged to backward point. Kallis’ persistent short-pitched deliveries gave him the second wicket. Ambati Rayudu waved at the bouncer and to his surprise Asad Rauf declared him out caught behind.

Kieron Pollard and T Suman were out to soft dismissals putting MI in a soup. The match went to the wire before the cool and calculative Franklin swung the match in favour of the home team.

Harbhajan Singh’s heave over mid-wicket off Shakib- Al-Hasan gave the winning run for MI, who needed seven runs in the 20th over.

Earlier, KKR suffered a huge setback in the very second over when Munaf induced Kallis to drive loosely and was held smartly by a diving Tendulkar at mid-off.

Kallis has been the main rungetter for KKR.

Harbhajan sent KKR into a spin by castling Gambhir, who played all over a sweep shot. KKR were 15 for 3 in the fourth over and this time left hander Goswami edged Munaf to Rayudu.

Yusuf Pathan and Doeschate walked in when KKR were struggling at 20 for four.

Doeschate, who hit two centuries in World Cup, broke free by pulling left-arm seamer Franklin for a six and in Pollard’s second over, the fifth wicket pair hammered 15 runs. The Dutch batsman’s placements were superb and stroked the ball beautifully.

The pair realised 60 runs off 45 balls before Pathan was nicely held by a running Pollard at long-on to give Patel his third wicket.

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