Pollock sends Knight Riders crashing

Chasing the lowest total in Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 8wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday. Sanath Jayasuriya continued his terrific form to score a quickfire 48 runs off 17 balls to guide his team to an easy victory with 87 balls to spare. Resurgent hosts Mumbai Indians go on to win their five matches in-a-row with this triumph. The win put Mumbai Indians fourth in the points table, keeping hope alive to make to the semi-finals of the tournament. Earlier, Shaun Pollock came up with a deadly spell on a helpful Wankhede Stadium track to rip the heart out of the Kolkata Knight Riders who were shot out for a paltry 67, lowest in the tournament by the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. Put in to bat, the Kolkata team were in dire straits by losing half their side with only 29 on the board as the top order was undone by some exceptional seam bowling on a bouncy and pacy track by Pollock, to a large extent, and his West Indian comrade-in-arms Dwayne Bravo. Former South African captain Pollock, now retired from international cricket, came up with yet another splendid display to finish with 3 for 12 in his full quota of four overs bowled on the trot. Bravo, who is to return home after this match to get involved in the Test and ODI series against Australia, had impressive figures of 2 for 13. Later local talent Rohan Raje and Australian Dominic Thornely grabbed two wickets apiece as the Kolkata team were shot out for the lowest total in the IPL, the previous worst being Bangalore Royals' 82 against them, in only 15.2 overs. Only Salman Butt (13), Sourav Ganguly (15) and Ajit Agarkar (15) reached double figures in a shocking display from a team aiming for a spot in the semifinals. The visitors totally lost their bearings after starting reasonably well when Pakistan left-hander Butt and Aakash Chopra put on 16 in the first two overs. Butt hit Pollock for a four and then slashed Ashish Nehra for a fine six over the cover region and things looked a bit rosy for Kolkata who had lost to the home team earlier in the tournament at the Eden Gardens that started the latter's winning streak after four straight defeats. But in the third over things took a dramatic turn as the visitors lost two wickets off successive balls. Pollock removed Butt by having the batsman caught at slip by Sachin Tendulkar, trying to drive. Then Chopra was run out due to a terrible mix-up with Ganguly to leave Kolkata at a dismal 16 for two after three overs. Pollock then dealt two huge blows by sending back in-form batsman David Hussey and Mohammed Hafeez with rising balls, which undid them. Australian Hussey edged an intended drive to wicketkeeper Yogesh Takawale while Hafeez, without getting his eye in, tried an injudicious drive to a rising delivery from Pollock and the high edge was taken well by second slip fielder Robin Uthappa. Pollocks deadly spell read 4-0-12-3 and he had ripped out the heart from the visiting teams batting to make it easy for the other bowlers. It was a repeat of his splendid display that rocked Chennai Super Kings on the back foot two nights ago before being rescued by S Badrinath and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. There was none to do so tonight for the Kolkata side. Bravo struck a blow when he induced Wriddhiman Saha to edge to Tendulkar a defensive prod and Kolkata were left gasping at 29 for five. Seeing the visiting team in disarray, Tendulkar brought into action his second-string pace attack and it paid rich dividends when Rohan Raje, who replaced Bravo after the latters two-over spell, clean bowled all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla when he shaped to clip the ball off his toes. Ganguly watched grimly from the other end when the mayhem took place and started to assert himself in the company of Ajit Agarkar who slammed Raje for two fours in one over to bring some cheers to the struggling visitors' ranks. At the half way mark Kolkata were 44 for six with very little batting left to bail them out of the deep hole. The seventh wicket duo added 19 runs, the highest for the innings thus far, when Ganguly was caught behind trying to guide medium pacer Dominic Thornely towards the third man region and wicket keeper Takawale took a juggling catch at the second attempt. And once Ganguly was gone, the rest folded up meekly. Tendulkar took four catches, which is highest by a fielder in an innings in the IPL.