Mumbai Indians thrash KKR, claim 2nd spot

Mumbai Indians moved to second place, all but ending Kolkata Knight Riders' dreams of qualifying for the playoffs, after an emphatic 65-run win in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Wankhede Stadium here Tuesday.

Mumbai bowled out the Knight Riders for a meagre total of 105 in 18.2 overs after electing to bat and scoring 170 for six. They collected all two points and moved within just two points of league leaders Chennai Super Kings, who are on 18 points.

Harbhajan Singh produced his best performance this season picking up three wickets while Pragyan Ojha and Mitchell Johnson chipping in with two apiece.

Johnson again made the early inroads for Mumbai, castling Gautam Gambhir (0) in the fourth ball of the chase.

Johnson was unlucky not to pick up another wicket in his next over with Harbhajan dropping Manvinder Bisla (17) in the slips.

Bisla, though, failed to take advantage and fell soon enough to Ojha. Yusuf Pathan (13) came in and tonked the ball for a six and a four but tried one too many shots and became Ojha's second victim.

Kolkata, then, kept losing wickets at regular intervals with the last five wickets falling for just 28 runs.

Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar (48) got Mumbai off to a blistering start smacking Ryan McLaren for five consecutive fours.

Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith (47) added 93 runs for the first wicket and it seemed that Mumbai would post a massive score.

However, after Tendulkar's fell Mumbai lost the next five wickets in no time adding just 51 runs to the total.

Mumbai scored 35 off the last two overs with Dinesh Karthik (34 off 18 balls) playing a crucial cameo in the end.