Mumbai Indians had to battle the Kolkata Knight Riders on their home ground, the Eden Gardens which happens to be Skipper Rohit Sharma’s favourite hunting ground. With KKR already having bagged a win against Delhi Daredevils, MI needed to win this game to level the playing field with the title-chasing rivals. The MI skipper won the toss and elected to bowl at Eden Gardens.

The game started slow, with Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir on point. With barely 4 runs an over, it was clear they were taking the cautious approach. But after clearing two fours past the MI defense, Uthappa felt he could step up the pace. But this turned out to be a mistake on his part, which led him to hand Pollard a catch smoother than cream cheese on a bagel. Pandey came in after Uthappa fell and made use of the remainder of the power play advancing KKR’s score. Rohit could have averted a partnership being built had he not let Gambhir’s catch slip past his fingers. Even so, with maximum effort from the MI players, Gambhir and Pandey were able to push through. The duo were taking the game away from the away side but then, in came Bhajji who broke the partnership with a very soft dismissal for Manish Pandey. However, after Pandey’s wicket Bhajji was hit for back-to-back sixes. What Bumrah and Rohit couldn’t, Parthiv did, and he caught out Gambhir at a personal score of 64 off 52 balls. Gambhir’s efforts did earn him the prestigious Orange Cap. At the end KKR finished at 187/5.

The score set by KKR did not seem easy enough to chase. MI needed to exercise caution in their play. Rohit gained momentum with a six off Russell with Parthiv complementing the pace by swinging for the fence. Unfortunately he was silenced sooner than he would have liked. After Pandya fell, McClenaghan came out as a surprise. It seemed KKR was never prepared for a Mitchell cameo, who scored 20 off 8 balls, hitting three back-to-back sixes. After Mitchell fell, the task was left to Jos Buttler and Rohit Sharma who did not disappoint the Mumbai fans. Jos Buttler, showed why he was such a big buy for MI this year by scoring 41 off 22 balls and got out just before the last over. Rohit did not let the team face any hiccups while chasing 9 runs off 10 balls. With a single off Piyush Chawla, Pollard got the 1st win for Mumbai Indians.

The game which seemed evenly matched had a righteous winner at the end. Kolkata still remains Rohit’s favourite ground to score!