Bowlers' day at Wankhede

Ironically, it was a Bengali who gave Mumbai Indians their first breakthrough and the capacity home crowd its first celebration. Brendon McCullum was at least two paces down the track when he was struck on the pads by an RP Singh delivery. But Subroto Das, the umpire, didn't waste time raising his finger. To make matters worse, replays then showed the ball to have pitched outside leg stump. As McCullum walked back, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir, watching from the other end, made it a point to have a quiet word with the umpire.

The strategic time-out. During the strategic breaks in the Knight Riders innings, performers at the stage close to the North Stand did their best to entertain with some acrobatic street-dancing but it was a shame they weren't shown on the big screen. Instead what played out was a timer for two-and-a-half minutes, setting up for that mundane, tasteless ten-second countdown before play resumed.

Sunil Narine's wild turner to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar is a contender but RP's beauty to send back Jacques Kallis first ball takes the prize. The ball landed on middle and off, was angling away and then straightened to clean up Kallis through the gate and uproot the off stump. A few mischievous giggles did the rounds when McCullum fell, but the sight of one of the most technically sound batsmen left clueless by a fast bowler was pure delight.

Debabrata Das did his bit when he failed to back up an overthrow and conceded four, and then dropped a catch in the deep to palm it over the ropes for six. But the biggest reaction from the crowd was reserved for Tendulkar, who dropped Gambhir at third man, only for the ball to land over the boundary. The reaction, predominantly, was one of surprise but among some of those born in the noughties, disbelief.

Lasith Malinga and Kieron Pollard are crowd favourites among Mumbai Indians' foreign players, both cheered on vociferously by fans when they bowl and bat respectively. Malinga almost answered their call when he beat Manoj Tiwary with two away-going deliveries in his first over. Pollard, driven by the expectation of steering his team out of trouble, began on the right note as well, with a four hammered over midwicket first ball after walking in to a huge ovation. But unfortunately for the crowd, he didn't last long.

McCullum did an excellent job to dismiss Rohit Sharma when the ball lobbed up in front of the batsman, and he ran forward and dived full length to snap it inches from the ground. But Dinesh Karthik did something better with the gloves in the first innings, as he ran a long distance in the direction of short fine leg to dive to his left and catch a skier from Rajat Bhatia. The catch was better, because he wasn't distracted by RP Singh running in from the deep and just about managed to avert a collision.