Captain Rohit Sharma's quick 80 on Wednesday helped holders help the Mumbai Indians win their first match in the UAE in seven attempts during the two IPL editions.
Mumbai lost five matches in 2014
season - the first half of which was played’ in the United Arab Emirates due to
elections in India - and was the opener of the Twenty20 tournament this season.
Sharma scored a crucial 90 for the second
wicket with Surya Kumar Yadav scoring 47 which helped Mumbai to 195 for five
and a 49-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi.
"These were just two players from the
2014 squad (Sharma and Caron Pollard) (who are with Mumbai this season),"
said Sharma, who was declared the man of the match.
"It was all about how we carried out
our plans today, we were in good positions and it's all about being
ruthless."
Sharma hit sixes off his 54 balls to take
his number of sixes in the IPL to 200
Mumbai bowlers Trent Bolt, James
Pattinson, Jaspreet Bumrah and Rahul Chahar took two wickets each to limit
Kolkata to 146 for nine.
Meanwhile, Kolkata's Australian Quick Pat
Cummins, the most expensive foreign player for the 2020 season, valued at 2.
2.17 million, gave up 49 runs in his three overs.
But later, Kimson, who played three ODIs
in England before coming to the UAE on September 16, batted seventh and scored
33 off 12 balls.
KKR captain Dinesh Karthik told reporters,
"It is unfair to do justice to him right now. He is far from guilty."
"He is a world champion bowler. He is
the best in the world from what I have heard and seen. I have full confidence
in him. I am sure he will come out good."
The 13th edition of the world's richest
T20 league is being held’ behind closed doors in the United Arab Emirates after
it moved out of India due to growing cases of coronavirus.
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