Sharma ton goes in vain as Chennai beats Mumbai in IPL. Salt leads Kolkata to win over Lucknow

MUMBAI (AP) — Rohit Sharma’s eighth Twenty20 century overall went in vain as Chennai Super Kings beat Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

Sharma scored 105 not out off 63 balls but couldn’t help his side reach the 207-run target, with Chennai winning by 20 runs.

MS Dhoni’s 20 not out off the last four balls of Chennai’s innings was the difference as the visitors scored 206-4 in 20 overs. Mumbai could only reply with 186-6.

Earlier, Phil Salt’s 89 not out off 47 balls powered Kolkata Knight Riders to an eight-wicket victory over Lucknow Super Giants at Eden Gardens.

With their respective wins, both Chennai and Kolkata are now equal on eight points. Kolkata has four wins from five games and is second in the points’ table with a superior net run-rate. Chennai has four wins from six games and is third.

Put into bat, Chennai lost opener Ajinkya Rahane early for five runs. Skipper Rituraj Gaikwad and Sachin Ravindra (21) added 52 off 37 balls for the second wicket.

Gaikwad scored a second successive half-century, finishing with 69 off 40 balls, including five sixes and five fours. While he anchored the innings, Shivam Dube lit up the Wankhede with an attacking 66 not out off 38 balls. They added 90 runs off only 45 balls for the third wicket with Mumbai skipper Hardik Pandya dismissing Gaikwad in the 16th over.

Dube hit 10 fours and two sixes to propel Chennai’s score, but seemed to be losing steam at the death. Jasprit Bumrah finished wicketless but gave away only 27 runs in four overs.

Dhoni then walked out to bat in the final over, perhaps for the last time at this ground, and smacked three consecutive sixes off Pandya. His finish helped Chennai cross 200 and set up the game.

Mumbai got off to a speedy start with Sharma and Ishan Kishan putting on 70 runs in just 7.1 overs.

Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana then pegged them back with a double breakthrough in the 8th over — first Kishan was caught at midwicket and then Suryakumar Yadav was caught at third man for a two-ball duck.

Sharma and Tilak Varma rebuilt the innings with 60 off 38 balls for the third wicket. Mumbai was back in the chase, when Pathirana struck again to send back Varma.

Chennai then put on the brakes with some clever bowling and field placing. Sharma, who had reached 50 off 33 balls, was starved of the strike and only faced another 30 balls despite being unbeaten at the end.

He did manage to double his score, reaching 100 off 61 balls, but Mumbai kept losing wickets at the other end.

Sharma hit 11 fours and five sixes, but his efforts went in vain. Pathirana finished with 4-28 from four overs. It was Mumbai’s fourth loss in six games this season.

SALT TOO STRONG

In Kolkata, Phil Salt smashed 14 fours and three sixes in his whirlwind knock as Kolkata won with 4.2 overs to spare. It finished on 162-2 in 15.4 overs, replying to Lucknow’s 161-7.

It was a second consecutive loss for the Super Giants who are now fifth with six points from as many games.

Salt’s second half-century of the season powered Kolkata’s chase from the very start, despite losing in-form Sunil Narine cheaply.

Left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan did the early damage for Lucknow, dismissing Narine as well as 18-year-old batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi (7).

The double breakthrough didn’t impede Salt who helped Kolkata to a powerful start of 42-2 in 3.1 overs.

Salt and skipper Shreyas Iyer then put on 120 runs for the unbroken third wicket off only 76 balls.

Salt reached 50 off 26, including eight fours and two sixes, and then accelerated even more. One of the sixes was spilt over the boundary at deep square leg in the seventh over, giving the batter a second chance as well as bonus runs.

He took another 39 runs off the next 21 balls, with six fours and a six, en route to his highest IPL score. Salt’s previous best was 87 for Delhi Capitals last season. The keeper-batter had come into the Kolkata squad to replace compatriot Jason Roy, who had pulled out of the tournament for personal reasons.

Iyer finished on 38 not out, with six fours, letting his partner do most of the heavy work.

Lucknow had been restricted to yet another sub-par score on an even batting surface at the Eden Gardens.

Nicholas Pooran top scored with 45 off 32, including four sixes, after Lucknow was down to 111-5 in 14.4 overs at one stage.

Pooran helped his side squeeze 50 runs off the last 27 balls, and he had some help from Ayush Badoni who scored 29.

Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, the most expensive player in the IPL, finally found some bowling rhythm and finished with 3-28 in four overs.

Skipper Lokesh Rahul scored 39 off 27 balls, with three fours and two sixes, but couldn’t help relaunch Lucknow’s innings.

MITCH MARSH INJURY

The Delhi Capitals have confirmed that all rounder Mitch Marsh flew home to Australia after picking up a minor hamstring injury.

Marsh is expected to rejoin the Capitals later in the tournament and the 32-year-old is not considered to be a doubt for the Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean and US starting in early June.

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