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On a green Abu Dhabi pitch that had plenty of bounce, Kolkata cruised to a big win over defending champions Mumbai in the opening game of the season.
The biggest difference was the impact made by the teams’ overseas players: Lasith Malinga was the only one who delivered for Mumbai, but for Kolkata Jacques Kallis set up the innings with a 72, Morne Morkel squeezed the chase with a burst of 2-0-2-0 at the start of the innings, and Sunil Narine scalped four as he became the quickest bowler to 50 wickets in the tournament.

Kolkata, on choosing to bat, began poorly with their captain Gautam Gambhir scratching around for a eight-ball duck that was ended by a pinpoint Malinga yorker. Manish Pandey, whose most famous feat remains his breakthrough century in the 2009 season, grabbed his chance at No. 3, and put on a 131-run stand with Kallis .

It was slow going early on, with only four fours and a six in the first 10 overs. Kallis has regularly faced questions over the pacing of his innings in Twenty20s, and when he was 34 off 31 in the 14th over, the murmurs were at their loudest, especially as Kolkata had a bunch of hitters waiting for their chance.

On the next delivery, Malinga put down a sitter off Kallis at short fine leg. It prompted a series of big hits from Kallis, who hit two sixes and a four off Pragyan Ojha in the next over on his way to ransacking 37 off his next 13 deliveries. — Cricinfo