In a nerve-cracking encounter, Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by five wickets in their last league level match of the Indian Premiere League (IPL) at the iconic Eden Gardens ground here on Sunday night.
Chasing Kolkata Knight Riders’ competitive score of 175 runs for the loss of seven wickets, the Mumbai batsmen reached the winning score of 178 runs by losing only five wicket in the last ball of the match.
James Franklin turned out to be the hero for the Mumbai outfit as he played a gallant match wining knock of 45 runs from 23 deliveries, hitting five boundaries and a sixer.
AT Rayudu remained notout with Franklin till the end on 17 runs, hitting a six of the last delivery of the match.
SR Tendulkar* (38) and Harbhajan Singh (30) , who was promoted up in the order on Sunday, contributed well with their willows.
In a well battled encouter between the two sides, that looked evenly balanced, MI batsmen kept themselves composed to drag their side to a memorable victory at the end of the day.
KKR found themselves in deep troubles as they lost S. Goswami (1) and Gautam Gambhir (8) in quick succession.
Kallis (59), Tiwary (35) and Pathan (36) helped the Kolkata side pose a handsome total at the end of the 20 overs.
Ahmed and Franklin picked up two wickets for MI.
Sri Lankan speed star L Malinga bowled fast and accurate but could not manage to pick any wicket in the game.
MI and KKR will face each other again in the elimination round of the IPL.
KKR also lost their chances of playing their first Champions League this year with this defeat on Sunday.