East London, May 1
JP Duminy smashed an unbeaten 52 off 37 balls to help Mumbai Indians carve an 11-run victory against a fighting Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League match here today.

Duminy hit four towering sixes and a four to propel Mumbai to 148 for six after skipper Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and elected to bat while Kolkata, despite Brad Hodge's brilliant 73 off 60 balls, could manage only 139 for six in their reply at Buffalo Park.

Duminy also stitched a 35-run partnership with dubutant Ajinkya Rahane (10) to hand Kolkata their second defeat in five days in the tournament.

Kolkata gave a good fightback to come close to achieving the target but fell to the bowling of Zaheer Khan who returned 3 for 31 while Graham Napier and Abhishek Nayar plucked one wicket each.

In their previous match, Mumbai had defeated Kolkata by 92 runs.

Duminy took charge of the proceedings when his team was struggling after star openers Sanath Jayasuriya (6) and Sachin Tendulkar (34) were removed by Knight Riders inside eight overs.

Kolkata pace spearhead Ishant Sharma started by conceding nine runs in the opening over but Ashok Dinda gave Knight Riders a big breakthrough in the fourth over. — PTI

Scoreboard
Mumbai Indians:
Jayasuriya c van Wyk b Dinda 6
Tendulkar c McCullum b Agarkar 34
Harbhajan c Dinda b Kartik 6
Nayar b Hodge 10
Duminy not out 52
Napier c McCullum b Gayle 15
Rahane c Gayle b Ishnat 10
Zaheer not out 2
Extras (b 3, lb 3, w 6, nb 1): 13
Total (6 wickets; 20 overs): 148
FoW: 1-19, 2-40, 3-54, 4-71, 5-96, 6-131
Bowling: Ishant Sharma 4-0-24-1, AB Dinda 3-0-27-1, LR Shukla 3-0-25-0, M Kartik 3-0-20-1, AB Agarkar 1-0-12-1, C Gayle 4-0-21-1, B Hodge 2-0-13-1.

Kolkata Knight Riders:
Gayle b Zaheer 7
Ganguly b Zaheer 0
Hodge run out 73
Van Wyk c Duminy b Napier 32
Shukla b Zaheer 6
McCullum c Malinga b Nayar 5
Saha not out 8
Agarkar not out 0
Extras (lb 1, w 6, nb 1): 8
Total (6 wickets; 19.6 overs): 139
FoW: 1-1, 2-8, 3-97, 4-119, 5-130, 6-132
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 4-0-31-3, G Napier 4-0-27-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-24-0, S Malinga 4-0-23-0, S Jayasuriya 1-0-13-0, A Nayar 2.6-0-20-1.

Bull-fighting is generally a daylight sport. That notwithstanding, Yuvraj Singh chose a starry evening to grab the bull by the horn. It initially paid dividends, but not enough for King’s XI Punjab (KXIP) to defeat Bangalore Royal Challengers. It almost went to the wire before Royal Challengers romped home by nine runs.

"We should have won this match," KXIP skipper Yuvraj Singh mourned.

With Ravi Bopara back for England to play the West Indies in a Test match next week, Yuvraj opened the batting to give himself more time at the crease. Indeed, he produced a sparkling half-century off 44 balls, which also recorded KXIP’s best opening partnership of the tournament. Making light of an unfamiliar role, the talented Chandigarh left-hander farmed the bowling till it lost its shine, before launching into four towering sixes.

At the very ground where he struck six sixes in an over in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, he welcomed both left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe and Anil Kumble with onside sixes; and also procured the maximum off the wrist spinner in his next over till he top-edged him to midwicket.

The dashing start was undone by Karan Goel - well caught by Virat Kohli - and Simon Katich, playing his first match this season, departing in quick succession - the latter remarkably run out by van der Merwe who dived at short third man to his wrong side, then rolled around on his back to fire in a fast and accurate throw.

Eightyfour for three ushered an experienced association of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. The start of the 18th over, though, saw the exit of Jayawardene as he failed to hit one up and over point.

Having thus captured his second wicket, van der Merwe found it difficult to grip a dew-laden ball. But the seasoned Kumble, leading BRC in the absence of Kevin Pietersen, also back home for England duty, sent down an economical 19th over, wherein he additionally disfigured Sangakarra’s stumps. If that wasn’t it, Praveen Kumar’s brace of wickets in the last over of the innings certainly was.

Matches are now descending thick and fast for KXIP. In their second appearance in three days - with a third one on Sunday to follow - Yuvraj admitted he would have batted had he won the toss. But an unpredictable pitch, albeit on the slower side, gave him a glimmer of hope.

Where by and large in India last year, only totals above 180 were considered to be competitive, the estimates in South African conditions over the past fortnight have increasingly declined to around 160, even 150.

The enigmatic Irfan Pathan may have lost his pace, but can still swing the new ball deliciously and promptly had left-hander Jess Ryder caught at slip. Two sixes followed from Rajesh Bishnoi, but local man Yusuf Abdullah pegged it back with a double strike, which reduced Royal Challengers to 38 for three.

Abdullah, left-arm medium pace, thereafter, captured two more wickets to snatch the purple cap - an honour for the highest wicket-taker in the tournament so far (13) - from Mumbai Indians’ Sri Lankan speed merchant Lasith Malinga. He could, in fact, have enjoyed a bag of five, but Piyush Chawla dropped a catch off the final ball of the innings, having earlier impressively pouched one racing in from the deep.

Jacques Kallis, entering the fray at number four, attempted to steady the steamer; but was clean bowled by Yuvraj - the second of this jubilant left-armer spinner’s two victims of successive balls. This compressed Royal Challengers to 80 for five; but the pyrotechnics of van der Merwe - 35 off 19 balls with the help of three sixes — carried them to a defendable score of 145 for nine.

A seemingly demoralised Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) drifted farther behind other sides — only three points now from seven games — in the current Twenty20 Indian Premier League when they failed to chase down 149 runs on a good pitch against Mumbai Indians at East London.

When Brendon McCullum turned it on in the opening game of last year’s inaugural IPL and KKR beat Bangalore Royal Challengers, one could not blame forecasters from feeling that the side led by former Indian captain Saurav Ganguly and consisting of, among others, Ricky Ponting, were likely contenders for the title. Yet, in the second edition of the tournament so far, they look the most disoriented.

It is palpably Kolkatans and non-resident Bengalis who mainly root for KKR. To a majority of such people, rightly or wrongly, Ganguly is a favourite son. Indeed, it may even be safe to say that it is his popularity that primarily drives KKR’s support base.

Shah Rukh Khan, the most high profile of KKR’s owners, may be one of India’s biggest film stars — and obviously another source of attraction — but he will struggle to match Ganguly’s following among Kolkatans and Bengalis.

As a proprietor, Khan has every right to demand changes in his set-up, especially if the coach (in this case John Buchanan) is either the advocate or in agreement with such alterations. But to thoroughly disenchant your supporters with such moves, in addition to defy cricketing wisdom, is as moronic as some of the stories in Bollywood movies.

If to sack Ganguly as skipper was the purpose, there were many honest and smarter ways of doing so. To cite Chinese battle strategies of 5,000 years ago - as Buchanan did - and be duplicitous about one’s intentions (as Khan was) was not the best way of going about it. Cricket is not Chinese chequers. And how could Khan ever imagine he would dupe anyone with his deceit?

Khan must have a superb feel for the pulse of Indian cine-goers to become the celluloid success he is. Yet, a “blog” allegedly written by one of the KKR players unflatteringly described him as a “megalomaniac”.

After one of his team’s matches in the current IPL, one of his flunkeys announced at a hotel bar — where the KKR players were gathered — that “the boss” was on his way. Immediately, all except Ganguly and McCullum — who were huddled together in one corner — headed for the entrance. What transpired thereafter was non-stop, mostly rubbish monologue.

Anybody who believes he’s going to be “the world’s first permanent movie star” needs to get his head examined; and anyone pompous enough to boast he’s bought his son a cricket team is undeserving of such an acquisition.

Even if his weakness for the Antipodes is overlooked, Buchanan infliction of crazy ideas, such a multiple captains, on Kolkata, which he was restrained from doing on Australia is downright reckless. He was, as is well known, coach of a squad who didn’t need much coaching.

In appearing to stand by Ganguly while unmistakably encouraging Buchanan, Khan was the real villain.

The IPL is a subsidiary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which claims to be a public trust. The franchises in the league may be privately owned, but they arguably have a public accountability, which includes a responsibility towards their ardent followers.

Unless Khan and Buchanan appreciate this forthwith — and KKR’s showing improves dramatically — public opinion in Kolkata could put the future of both in doubt.