Brilliant batting displays from Venkatesh Iyer and Pat Cummins helped Kolkata Knight Riders clinch a five-wicket victory against Mumbai Indians in the IPL match on Wednesday.
Follow Us
Brilliant batting displays from Venkatesh Iyer and Pat Cummins helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clinch a five-wicket victory against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL contest at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune on Wednesday. This helped the Kolkata side claim the top spot of the Indian Premier League (IPL) table with three wins from four matches.
Chasing a target of 162 runs, KKR lost wickets at regular intervals. At one stage, they were tottering at 83/4. The team lost Ajinkya Rahane (7), skipper Shreyas Iyer (10), Sam Billings (17), Nitish Rana (8) and big hitter Andre Russell (11) by the 14th over. Having lost their top order except for Venkatesh Iyer (50), the Kolkata side was in dire need of a partnership.
READ MORE: RCB News: Glenn Maxwell to be available after Cricket Australia clause expires
Pat Cummins came in next and took the match by the scruff of its neck. He scored a blistering 56 in just 15 balls. The explosive knock consisted of four boundaries and 6 sixes.
The Aussie all-rounder took KKR over the line with four overs to spare. Venkatesh Iyer hit six boundaries and one six in his 41-ball knock.
In the first 14 overs, MI bowlers showed promise and managed to take wickets at regular intervals. Murugan Ashwin took two wickets and was the most economical Mumbai bowler as he returned figures of 2/25 in three overs. Tymal Mills dismissed two KKR batters but proved to be expensive.
Earlier, a half-century from Suryakumar Yadav and a decent knock from Tilak Varma propelled MI to 161/4 against KKR. After losing the toss and being asked to bat, MI lost their captain Rohit Sharma in the third over with only six runs on the board.
Following the loss of the skipper’s wicket, Dewald Brewis (29) came in and partnered with opener Ishan Kishan to take MI’s score to 45. The South African looked dangerous as he hit two boundaries and two sixes in his 19-ball cameo before falling to the delivery of Varun Chakravarthy in the 8th over. Ishaan Kishan’s (14) slow-going innings came to end in the 11th over as he was caught by Shreyas Iyer on Pat Cummins’ delivery. MI was struggling to maintain a healthy run-rate as they lost their important top-order players in the first 11 overs.
READ MORE: IPL Media Rights: TV18-Viacom, Disney, Amazon interested in multi-year deal
From there on, Suryakumar Yadav (52) anchored the innings and Tilak Varma (38) played a quickfire knock to up the ante. Yadav hit five boundaries and two six in his 36-ball innings. Varma chipped in with three boundaries and two sixes in 27 balls. The duo stitched a partnership of 83 runs before Cummins dismissed Suryakumar Yadav in the first ball of the last over.
Kieron Pollard came in to play five balls and scored a quick 20 after hitting three sixes.
Umesh Yadav has been the pick of the bowlers for KKR. After dismissing the danger man Rohit early, Yadav maintained a good economy of 6.25 in his spell. He returned figures of 1/25 in four overs. Pat Cummins took two wickets but leaked 49 runs in four overs. Sunil Narine managed to keep strokeplay under control as he conceded only 26 runs in four overs.
