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Tendulkar, Jayasuriya assault sweeps Mumbai Indians to victory

Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya produced a masterclass of Twenty20 batting in a century opening stand as Mumbai Indians recorded a whopping 92-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here late Monday.

Tendulkar (68 off 45 balls) and Jayasuriya (52 off 32 balls) decimated the Knight Riders bowling attack to take Mumbai Indians to 187 for six.

Knight Riders were never in the hunt and folded up for 95 with Lasith Malinga (3-11) and Abhishek Nayar (3-13) doing the damage.

Knight Riders’ hopes of an explosive start from big-hitters Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle went up in smoke yet again as both left with only 17 runs on the board.

Zaheer Khan and Malinga bowled tightly upfront, not allowing Knight Riders to utilise the powerplay. Malinga dismissed an off-colour McCullum while Gayle, after hitting one six off Dwayne Bravo, edged to lone-slip Tendulkar.

In-form Sourav Ganguly hit some telling blows and together with Brad Hodge tried to ressurect the innings. But pressure got the better of them after the strategic timeout and they fell in quick sucession. Knight Riders then lost wickets in heaps as the batsmen tried to force the pace, resulting in an early end.

But the highlight of the match was the Tendulkar-Jayasuriya show.

The duo, with close to 30,000 One-day runs between them, treated the crowd to a spectacle. The two great players turned the clock back with a vintage performance as they rained fours and sixes.

On Monday night, Tendulkar and Jayasuriya looked much younger than their combined age of nearly 76. Their class had no trace of rust even after close to two decades of international cricket.

It was something the cricketing world had anticipated since Mumbai Indians brought them together, but it never happened last year.

They struck four sixes apiece, competing with each other to hit the ball farther and higher

Tendulkar set the tempo, hitting Ashok Dinda for a six and a four in the second over. There was no looking back after that. A Sachin special was a pulled six off Ishant Sharma over mid-wicket.

Jayasuriya joined Tendulkar as he hit two clean sixes off Sourav Ganguly. They plundered 127 runs in 74 balls and it looked like a total of over 200 was within reach.

But Laxmi Shukla dismissed both to bring some hope for Knight Riders. Mumbai Indians, who had scored 111 in 10 overs, could add only 76 in the next 10.