Kolkata beat Mumbai by nine wickets in dead IPL rubber

Kolkata Knight Riders ended their IPL - III campaign on a positive note, posting a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over table-toppers Mumbai Indians in a dead rubber at Eden Gardens here on Monday.

Already out of the semifinal reckoning, the hosts put up a splendid all round show under lights and finished in sixth position with 14 points behind Delhi Daredevils.

Delhi garnered the same number of points but finished just above Knight Riders (-0.34) owing to their better run rate (+0.02).

Exploiting the slow track, Shah Rukh Khan’s team restricted the new look Mumbai Indians to 133 for eight and then overhauled the target with 2.3 overs to spare.

Brendon McCullum (57 n.o.) and Sourav Ganguly (42) didn’t have any problems in dealing with the depleted Mumbai attack.

Mumbai, who are already in the semifinals, rested five of their first-choice players for the inconsequential tie. Shikhar Dhawan came in for Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo for Kieron Pollard, R Sathish for Abhishek Nayar, Ali Murtaza for Harbhajan Singh and Stuart Binny for Zaheer Khan.

Batting first, Saurabh Tiwary hit a sensible 37-ball 46 as Mumbai were restricted to their lowest ever total against Kolkata Knight Riders thanks to some fine bowling by left-arm spinner Murali Kartik (2/20) and speedster Shane Bond (2/24).

Ambati Rayudu chipped in with a 27-run cameo down the order to give some respectability to the total.

Chasing a modest target, and playing under no pressure, Kiwi wicket-keeper McCullum and skipper Ganguly threw their bat at each and everything and produced the one of the best opening stands for their side in this season.

They rattled up 97 in 13.5 overs to lay the foundation for the comfortable win. Ganguly’s 36-ball knock had four fours and two sixes and McCullum’s 56 ball innings was studded with eight fours.

Ganguly began the scoring by hammering a big six off left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza and McCullum played some really exquisite drives off Ryan McLaren and Dilhara Fernando.

The Sri Lankan paceman was punished by Ganguly too as he was hit for a six and four by the former Indian captain.

Ganguly ended the third IPL season with 493 runs, inspite of a poor start to the tournament.

However, his best efforts were not good enough as Kolkata remained the only team in IPL not to reach the semifinals in all three editions.

Dwayne Bravo, who led the side in absence of Tendulkar, produced a chance to break the partnership but McLaren grassed Ganguly on 22.

At half-way mark, Kolkata were comfortably placed at 72 for no loss but the partnership ended soon with the dismissal of Ganguly.

The southpaw miscued one shot off R Satish and the ball landed in the hands of Bravo, who nearly messed it up with McLaren.

McCullum and David Hussey (20 n.o.) then guided the team  home.