Rohit Sharma once again the king of Eden

Kolkata: Rohit Sharma continued his love affair with Eden Gardens scripting an innings of controlled aggression that decimated Kolkata Knight Riders, on Wednesday. Gautam Gambhir's men failed to find a way to stop the marauding Mumbai Indians captain as his unbeaten 84 off 54 deliveries gave the visitors a six-wicket victory. Mumbai Indians had failed to get off the blocks with the desired intensity in the last two seasons. They lost their first four games last year, and their first five in 2014. After their horror show against Rising Pune Supergiants in the opener this season, they were determined to make amends.

Kolkata Knight Riders had threatened to stop them with an imposing 188-run target, but inept bowling and fielding let them down. Rohit had scored 98 not out and 50 in his last two IPL innings at  - not to mention his 264 in an ODI - and he didn't disappoint this time too. He showed once again why he is regarded as a class act in this format. He held the innings together while never allowing the bowlers to dictate terms. Rohit and Parthiv Patel provided a rollicking start to their innings adding 53 in 5.5 overs. Thereafter, Mumbai Indians batsmen never committed hara-kiri, but adopted a calculated and pragmatic way of approaching the target. The dismissals of Hardik Pandya and Mitchell McClenaghan had little effect as they went about their task in a superb fashion. The Knight Riders bowling lacked depth and discipline making Gambhir's task difficult. If Rohit provided the stability to the innings, Jos Buttler provided the aggression and positive approach in the middle overs. One of the architects of England's ascendancy in the limited-overs format, Buttler tore the Knight Riders bowling to shreds in the 15th over. Hogg was carted around for a four and a six to provide the momentum needed at that stage. The next over from Russell proved to be fruitful as well. Buttler once again was in his elements smashing two sixes and a boundary to take it beyond the Knight Riders' grasp. Buttler fell for 41 off 22 balls, but by then the Knight Riders seemed resigned to their fate. Once Buttler was dismissed, Rohit provided the finishing touches with three consecutive boundaries off Russell. That proved to be the icing on the cake for Mumbai Indians. The Kolkata Knight Riders decided to rest the jet-lagged Sunil Narine and instead kept faith on their spinning trio of Brad Hogg, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav, who came in for Umesh Yadav. That hardly proved to be of much use in the end. Rohit's performance covered up for a few failures of his Mumbai Indians teammates. Hardik Pandya couldn't do justice to his new-found status, be it with the bat or ball. Having gone for 22 runs in his two overs, he could score only nine off 10 balls. But it hardly mattered. The slow wicket could be blamed for a sedate start by the Knight Riders, but once the batsmen gauged the pace and bounce on offer, there was no stopping Gambhir and Manish Pandey. There was no use of brute force, but some judicious shot selection and intelligent placement of the ball worked wonders. Gambhir used his feet against the spinners and never missed out on scoring opportunities. Even Indian cricket's latest find, Jasprit Bumrah, or the experienced Harbhajan Singh failed to create an impact on Gambhir. Rohit, though, will rue dropping the Knight Riders' captain on 30, a fairly straightforward chance at midwicket off Jagadeesha Suchith's second ball. Gambhir had another reprieve on 55 when Bumrah misjudged a caught and bowled chance. While Gambhir did take a while to settle down, Pandey (52 off 29 balls) was in his elements from the outset. He was middling the ball well while never allowing the bowlers to settle into a line. The pair stitched together 100 runs off 60 balls for the second wicket before Pandey misread a top-spinner from Harbhajan. Once the foundation was laid, Andre Russell decided to deal in sixes. The West Indian hit 36 off 17 balls including four sixes. Gambhir was dismissed in the 19th over for 64 off 52 balls. The run-rate failed to reach the desired level with 45 runs coming off the last five overs. After the outstanding innings, Rohit said that the defending champions were game to getting anything around 175 even though their opponents got a few extra runs. "We were up for the chase for anything around 175, but they got around 10 extra. "We bowled well in the end, as at one point they looked like getting 200. It was Ricky (Ponting)'s idea to send McClenaghan up the order. "He sent the message across about sending the left-hander in as a leg-spinner was bowling. Mitch is a power-hitter and we wanted to use him well," Rohit said.