Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets

New Delhi, April 24: Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets in Pepsi Indian Premier League match which was held in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Batting first, KKR scored 159 for six but MI surpassed the total with a ball to spare as Dwayne Smith hit 62.

Dwayne Smith smashed a 45-ball-62 to create a launchpad for this significant victory for the 'Men In Blue' as Rohit Sharma (34) and Kieron Pollard (33) also chipped in with.

For defending champions KKR, this was their fifth defeat and their campaign is slowly turning from bad to worse as they stay on four points from seven games compared to MI's eight points.

KKR's 'Go-To' Man Rajat Bhatia came in to bowl the final over with 10 runs required and immediately removed the dangerous Pollard.

But Harbhajan Singh compensated for his poor show with the ball as he blasted the Delhi veteran over deep mid-wicket which proved to be a decisive blow in the end. With two to get off two balls, Ambati Rayudu hit one over extra cover to close the match.

Smith however went ahead unflustered by the situation as he singled out left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla for special treatment. Four of his five sixes were hit off Abdulla in the region between deep mid-wicket and long-on.

Earlier, KKR failed to cash in on the initial momentum as Mumbai Indians bowlers came back strongly to restrict the defending champions to 159 for six.

After being hammered for 46 runs in the first three overs, MI bowlers led by Pragyan Ojha (2/22) and Lasith Malinga (2/25) took full advantage of the slowish track giving away only 113 runs in the next 17 overs.

While Jacques Kallis (37), Tiwary (33) and Eoin Morgan (31) made useful contributions but none of them went onto play a big one.

The final five overs of the innings yielded only 47 runs as Malinga got two wickets giving away only three runs in the final over of the innings.

KKR couldn't have dreamt of a better script when Yusuf Pathan (19) and Guatam Gambhir plundered 26 runs off the very first over bowled by Harbhajan Singh.