Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
Whenever Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) play against each other in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the battle is interesting. Although Mumbai enjoy an upper hand, KKR never fail to put up a fight. The same happened at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Wednesday. After winning the toss, KKR kept the game in their grasp with regular wickets.
However, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma's late assaults powered Mumbai to 161. KKR also took up the challenge as they started the chase with the opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane. But the Shreyas Iyer-led side made too many mistakes. They kept losing wickets making it harder for the batsmen to come. Their top and middle order failed except for Venkatesh Iyer.
The southpaw held one end intact and also scored a crucial half-century. But it was too big a task for Iyer with MI bowlers keeping things tight. Nonetheless, he found some support from Pat Cummins who eased the pressure off Iyer with his nonchalant shots. The best one came off the bowling of Tymal Mills in the 14th over. Cummins deposited a full toss from Mills into the stands with minimal effort.
Watch the video here:
Cummins snatches win from MI's mouth
With this six off Tymal Mills, Cummins announced his arrival in IPL 2022. From thereon, the KKR batter did not look back and smoked 6 such sixes to seal the game for his team. In the process, he also scored the joint-fastest fifty in the Indian Premier League. Cummins reached the landmark in 14 balls and equaled KL Rahul's record.
None of the MI bowlers could trouble Cummins. He hit every bowler who came his way. Although he got a life when he was batting at 44, he had already done his job. This freak show from Cummins kept MI deprived of their first win in IPL 2022.