Rohit Sharma's love affair with Eden Gardens continued as he smashed an unbeaten 84 to power Mumbai Indians to a six-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in an Indian Premier league (IPl) encounter here on Wednesday.
Jos Buttler with a quickfire 22-ball 41 was the other major contributor. For KKR, Andre Russell, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav picked up a wicket each.
The defending champions started off at a brisk pace chasing KKR's challenging 187/5 with Rohit and Parthiv Patel picking the gaps at will.
By the end of the powerplay, the score read 53/1. But then Brad Hogg effected a brilliant run-out and sent back Parthiv to the dugout much to the delight of the 35,000-odd fans in the stadium.
The wicket also helped KKR bring down the run rate.
Thereafter, some silly errors from wicket-keeper Robin Uthappa helped the visitors. Mumbai Indians got to 87/1 at the end of 10 overs.
KKR then got rid of Hardik Pandya (9)and Mitchell McClenaghan (20) in quick succession as they tried to slowly crawl their way back into the contest.
However, Buttler and Rohit had other ideas. The England power-hitter did not need a sighter and tonked the hapless KKR bowlers too all parts of the park. He also took on Andre Russell and clubbed him for 18 in an over.
The onslaught brought down the asking rate rapidly and before long Mumbai were in touching distance of win.
Earlier, fifties from Gautam Gambhir and Manish Pandey along with a quickfire 17-ball 36 from Andre Russell helped Kolkata Knight Riders post a challenging score.
Gambhir scored a 52-ball 64 and was ably supported by Pandey's 52. For Mumbai, Mitchell McClenaghan returned figures of 2/25.
Gambhir, who was dropped at 30 by Rohit Sharma, then got to his half century. Pandey too got to his fifty as the Knights tried stepping on the gas. Andre Russell who walked out to bat next started off with a bang. He almost hit sixes at will.
Brief Scores
KKR: 187/5 (Gambhir 64, Pandey 52) lose to MI: 188/4 (Rohit Sharma not out 84, Jos Buttler 41) by six wickets.