IPL 4 play-off: Knight Riders knocked out, Mumbai Indians to clash with RCB

Mumbai: In chase of a modest 148, Mumbai Indians started off well, faltered mid-way and then held their nerve to clinch a sensational win to knock out Kolkata Knight Riders from the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

The hosts defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets and will now face Royal Challengers Bangalore in Friday's qualifier match for a place in Saturday's final.

After Ryan ten Doeschate lifted Kolkata Knight Riders from a disastrous start to 147/7 with a magnificent unbeaten 70, Mumbai started aggressively to put the side on course with an 81-run stand for the first wicket.

Adien Blizzards demolished Kolkata’s attack and slammed a fiery 51 off 30 balls, fastest half-ton by any MI batsman in the tournament. Tendulkar on the other hand appeared calm as he allowed the Australian to take charge of the chase.

However, tide rapidly turned in Kolkata’s favour as Mumbai stumbled after the dismissal of Blizzard in the 8th over. From 81/1, the hosts were soon reduced to 103/4, bringing Kolkata back into the game.

It was New Zealander James Franklin who rescued his side from the flurry of wickets and steered Mumbai to a terrific victory with his gritty knock.

The hosts lost two more wickets in the process, but Franklin didn’t succumb under pressure and shattered the IPL dream of KKR.

Earlier, incredible attack by Mumbai bowlers restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to a modest 147/7.

Munaf Patel, the third leading wicket taker in the tournament finished with an impressive 3/27. The Baroda boy got Mumbai off to a dream start, after they elected to bowl, by dismissing the dangerous Jacques Kallis (4) early.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh capitalised on the terrific start and got rid of skipper Gautam Gambhir (4) in the next over to rattle Kolkata.

Before, the visitors could recover from the double jolt, Patel once again struck to dismiss Shreevats Goswami for a duck.

Dhawal Kulkarni, who opened the Mumbai attack in the match, then sent back Manoj Tiwary (4), reducing Kolkata to 20/4 in 5 overs.

Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate then lifted the side with a gritty partnership of 60 runs for the fifth wicket.

Pathan scored a responsible 26 and paired up well with Doeschate. However, after a brief recovery he became the third victim of Patel who got him caught by Pollard at long on.

Doeschate, however, looked determined to steer the side to a challenging total. After Pathan’s dismissal he got ample support from Shakib-Al Hasan who smashed 26 off 16 balls to keep Mumbai’s hope alive.