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Kallis stars in IPL opener

Abu Dhabi - Jacques Kallis and Morne Morkel have played huge roles in helping the Kolkata Knight Riders to a comprehensive, 41-run victory against defending champions Mumbai Indians in the opening game of the 2014 IPL at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

According to the supersport.com website, Morkel delivered a hostile and miserly spell of 1-16 from his four overs while Kallis top scored with 72 from just 46 deliveries as the Knight Riders amassed 163-5 before restricting the Mumbai Indians to a paltry 122-7 on a surprisingly green but well-behaved pitched in the Emirati desert.

West Indian mystery spinner, Sunil Narine, played the major role in Mumbai’s demise with a deceptive and captivating spell of 4-20 during which he had top scorer Ambati Rayadu (48) stumped and clean bowled big-hitters Harbhajan Singh and Corey Anderson.

Knight Riders second wicket partnership of 131 between Kallis and Manish Pandey laid the foundation for KKR’s total after captain Gautam Gambhir made a horrible start using up eight deliveries without scoring a run before Lasith Malinga flattened his off stump.

Kallis and Pandey remained calm and appeared unconcerned by a pedestrian run rate which saw them reach 63-1 at the halfway stage.

But Pandey launched spinner Pragyan Ojha for six to kick start his own innings and Kallis produced remarkable acceleration to reach 72 from 46 deliveries, with five fours and three sixes, before Corey Anderson held a fine diving catch in the deep off Malinga in the penultimate over.

Pandey’s 64 from 53 balls contained six fours and a pair of sixes but was ended by Malinga who finished with the brilliant analysis of 4-23 from his four overs.

Suryakumar Yadav put the finishing touches to a competitive total with 13 from just five balls in the final over bowled by Kiwi Anderson whose analysis (3-0-33-0) was the most expensive on the innings.

Kallis was deservedly named man of the match after following his innings with a cunning spell of bowling in which he conceded just 23 runs from three overs.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: RG Sharma (captain), MEK Hussey, AP Tare, AT Rayudu (wicketkeeper), CM Gautam, KA Pollard, CJ Anderson, Harbhajan Singh, SL Malinga, Z Khan, PP Ojha

Kolkata Knight Riders: G Gambhir (captain), JH Kallis, MK Pandey, RV Uthappa (wicketkeeper), Shakib Al Hasan, YK Pathan, SA Yadav, PP Chawla, R Vinay Kumar, SP Narine, M Morkel
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