Rohit hopeful of quick response

(MENAFN- Kora) The defending champions were poor as they opened the 2014 edition of the world's biggest domestic twenty20 tournament against the kolkata knight riders in abu dhabi.

jacques kallis (72) and manish pandey (64) helped kolkata to a score of 163-5 from their 20 overs and mumbai's chase never really got going.

missing retired pair sachin tendulkar and ricky ponting this season mumbai's star recruit michael hussey failed to fire scoring just three.

ambati rayudu (48) was the only mumbai player to pass 30 as west indies spinner sunil narine (4-20 off four overs) ran riot. mumbai finished on 122-7 and sharma expects his side to respond from the setback.

"(this is) disappointing. (there is) lots to learn from this game" rohit said afterwards.

"we will take the positives from this game although there weren't many.

"i hope the guys stay positive and enjoy each other's company. it's a long tournament.

"they batted really well we didn't get a wicket when we wanted and they knew with eight wickets in hand?(they could go) after the bowling.

"we tried our best (lasith) malinga bowled really well (the sri lankan took four wickets) and i hope the guys can turn it around as quickly as possible.

"still (there's) 13 more games and i hope we come back strongly."

kolkata captain gautam gambhir made an eight-ball duck but was buoyed by the efforts of kallis and pandey.

the duo combined for a 131-run stand for the second wicket and set the platform for the knight riders' victory.

narine was ably assisted by south africa quick morne morkel (1-16 off four) and leg-spinner piyush chawla (1-15 off three).

and the bowling options available to gambhir have him confident of a good season.

"we've got a very good bowling attack and if we put runs on the board most of the times we'll end up winning" gambhir said.

"a quality batter like jacques kallis knows when to accelerate. and if either me or him stays till the 15th over we'll get a good score.

"morne morkel gives us pace and bounce and we've got sunil. we have got a very balanced attack."