Rohit Sharma, Jos Buttler Steer Mumbai Indian to First Win in IPL 2016

By: Tarish Bhatt

It won’t be wrong calling the Eden Gardens, a Rohit Garden. The Eden is unarguably Rohit Sharma’s favorite ground, seeing the amount of runs he has pilled on this particular venue.

Rohit was again in his midas touch at the Eden, against Kolkata Knight Riders, scoring a magnificent, unbeaten half-century to steer his side to a six-wicket win with five balls to spare.

While when Rohit anchored the one end, Parthiv Patel, Mitchell McClenaghan and Jos Buttler played their parts by scoring freely, and upping the ante when required.

Buttler, in particular, provided the late thrust to Mumbai innings to bring the target within reach, and Rohit finished the job with some bit hits towards the end.

McClenaghan, who was promoted ahead of Buttler and Kieron Pollard, also played a crucial role by upping the ante, and playing the role of a pinch-hitter in the middle-overs.

The Knight Riders, despite putting a competitive total on the board, failed to pick wickets, and break partnerships when required and lost the match.

Earlier, batting first, the Knight Riders posted 188 runs on the board. They could have gone past 200 runs mark, but Mumbai Indian bowled the death overs brilliantly.

Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey scored fifties for the hosts, and stitched a 100-run partnership for the second wicket to put Kolkata on course of posting an imposing total.

Despite the partnership between Gambhir and Pandey, Kolkata failed to get the much-needed late thrust because their lower middle-order didn’t fire.