Premier pacer Pat Cummins batted like never before, tying the record for fastest fifty in the IPL, including 35 in an over, as Kolkata Knight Riders crushed the Mumbai Indians by five wickets on Wednesday. Cummins blasted his way to his fifty in just 14 balls and joined KL Rahul at the top of the standings, while opener Venkatesh Iyer slammed through the innings for his undefeated 41-ball 50, while KKR completed a 162 chase with a staggering four overs to spare.
It was incredible stuff from Cummins as KKR, needing 35 of 30 balls, got them all in just six deliveries, with the Australian test captain hitting six sixes and four limits in his 15 ball 56.
Daniel Sams took the brunt of Cummins’ attack when he gave up 35 runs in the 16th left, sealing it for KKR.
Along with Iyer, Cummins, who came in at number six, shared 61 runs in just 2.1 overs to improve on MI’s tally of 161 for four.
MI thus dropped to its third loss in as many games.
KKR got off to a slow start, reaching 16 after the first four overs. The wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and skipper Shreyas Iyer made life difficult for KKR as they dropped to 35 for two in the sixth over.
Sam Billings made 17 from 12 balls before being fired by Murugan Ashwin.
Iyer, on the other hand, went about his business in his own way and kept the scoreboard ticking.
With Iyer standing firm on one side, wickets continued to tumble from the other when Nitish Rana failed again, caught at deep midwicket by Sams at Ashwin.
Andre Russell played a five-ball 11-run knockout before leaving Iyer stranded, top-edge a short delivery from Tymal Mills to Dewald Brevis.
Cummins then took the charge to the opposition, hitting Mills for a boundary and six straight balls.
After conceding 23 points in the final when MI hit, Cummins knocked the MI bowlers all over the field to take KKR home in a big way.
Previously, veteran Kieron Pollard completed Suryakumar Yadav’s stout half-century by collecting 23 runs in the last over to propel MI after KKR kept things tight for much of their innings.
After an 83-run fourth-wicket tie between Suryakumar Yadav (52) and Tilak Varma (38 not out), Pollard (22 not out) crushed the world’s best fast bowler Pat Cummins for three sixes to MI’s innings on a high to end.
KKR’s early bowlers chose to bowl first on a fresh, grassy field and used the conditions to perfection as pacer Umesh Yadav (1/25) and debutant Rasikh Salam (0/18) relied on backup of-length deliveries to get MI’s opening duo into trouble. from skipper Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan.
Umesh and Cummins (2/49) picked up early wickets to reduce MI to 55 for three.
Umesh looked more menacing for the two as he consistently tested MI’s high profile lead-off batters with his penetrating length, delivering a fantastic scoop that netted just one run.
Salam tried to match his senior pro.
Umesh skipped the first blood in the third with a back-of-length delivery to get Rohit in IPL for the fifth time, with the MI skipper failing to control a pull.
Then came another debutant Dewald Brevis (29), known as ‘Baby AB’ for his 360-degree shot-making skills, and he tried to attack the KKR bowlers.
He succeeded in his attempt for a short period, hitting two fours and as many sixes, but fell to Varun Chakravarthy (1/32).
All the while, MI’s man-in-form Ishan Kishan (14 of 21) was a silent spectator on the other side.
Unlike his last two innings, Kishan seemed to struggle from the start and a bad start didn’t help his case either.
Kishan’s battle came to an end in the 11th over when he misplaced a Cummins pull-off to KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer.
Varma got a reprieve in the 13th when Ajinkya Rahane spooned him after a mix-up with Billings.
Yadav skipped a four and a huge six in the last two deliveries of the same to speed up MI’s innings.
Varma seized the missed opportunity with both hands and scooped Cummins over the fine leg for a maximum, then followed it with a slash down the middle of the wicket for a boundary at Chakravarthy.
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Yadav, on the other hand, looked foreboding after returning from injury, playing mostly in fours and sixes to score his fifty in 34 balls.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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