Images from the IPL 2022 match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Wednesday.
Premier pacer Pat Cummins shone with the bat like never before, equalling the record for the fastest fifty in the IPL enroute to an entertaining 56 from just 15 balls as Kolkata Knight Riders crushed Mumbai Indians by five wickets in Pune on Wednesday.
Cummins blazed away to his fifty in just 14 balls, joining KL Rahul on the top of the leaderboard, while opener Venkatesh Iyer batted through the innings for his unbeaten 41-ball 50, as KKR completed a chase of 162 with as many as four overs to spare.
It was unbelievable stuff from Cummins as KKR, needing 35 from 30 balls, got them all in just six deliveries with the Australian Test captain hitting six sixes and four boundaries to entertain the Pune crowd.
Daniel Sams bore the brunt of Cummins' onslaught the most, conceding 35 runs in the 16th over.
Together with Iyer, Cummins, who came in at No 6, shared 61 runs in just 18 balls to overhaul MI's total of 161 for four.
Five-time IPL champions MI suffered their third straight defeat in IPL 2022.
Set 162 for victory on a sluggish pitch, KKR struggled at the start as Ajinkya Rahane (7) and Shreyas Iyer (10) perished inside the Powerplay.
Sam Billings looked to break the shackles as he hit a couple of sixes in his 17 before he holed out to long-off as he tried to hit leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin out of the ground.
Venkatesh Iyer struggled with his time all through but held one up end and came up with boundaries at regular intervals to keep KKR in touch with the asking rate.
KKR kept losing wickets at the other end.
Nitish Rana failed once again, caught at deep midwicket off Ashwin for eight before Andre Russell perished for 11, top edging the attempted pull shot off Tymal Mills.
But the arrival of Cummins changed the script completely as he went on a stunning counter-attack.
He started off with a six over square off Tymal Mills, followed by a boundary, before he repeated the dose on Jasprit Bumrah in the next over.
KKR needed 35 from five overs for victory, but Cummins finished off the match in a single as he hit the hapless Daniel Sams for four sixes and two fours in the 16th over.
Cummins raced to his fifty from just 14 balls to equal the record for the fastest half-century in IPL, set by KL Rahul in 2018.
KKR jumped to the top of the IPL standings with their third win from four matches, while Mumbai slipped to ninth after their third defeat in a row.
Earlier, veteran Kieron Pollard complemented Suryakumar Yadav's brisk half-century by amassing 23 runs in the last over to lift Mumbai Indians to 161/4 after KKR's bowlers kept things tight for a major part of their innings.
After an 83-run fourth-wicket stand between Suryakumar (52) and Tilak Varma (38 not out), Pollard (22 not out) smashed the world's premier fast bowler Cummins for three sixes to end MI's innings on a high.
Opting to bowl first on a fresh pitch with plenty of grass, KKR's opening bowlers used the conditions to perfection as pacer Umesh Yadav (1/25) and debutant Rasikh Salam (0/18) relied on back of length deliveries to trouble MI's opening duo of 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 threatening of the two as he consistently tested the high-profile MI opening batters with his probing length, producing a fantastic first over which yielded just one run. Salam tried to match his senior pro.
Umesh struck first blood in the third over with a back-of-length delivery to get Rohit for the fifth time in IPL, with the MI skipper failing to control a pull.
He succeeded in his endeavour for a brief period, hitting two fours and as many sixes, but fell to Varun Chakravarthy (1/32).
All this while, MI's man-in-form Ishan Kishan (14 off 21) was a quiet spectator at the other end. Unlike his last two innings, Kishan seemed to be struggling from the onset and a poor start didn't help his cause either.
Kishan's struggle came to an end in the 11th over when he miscued a pull off Cummins to KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer. Varma got a reprieve in the 13th over when Ajinkya Rahane dropped a simple catch after a confusion with wicketkeeper Billings.
Suryakumar struck a four and a huge six in the final two deliveries of the same over to give MI's innings some momentum. Varma grabbed the missed chance with both hand and scooped Cummins over fine leg for a maximum and then followed it with a slash over mid-wicket for a boundary off Chakravarthy.
Suryakumar, on the other hand, looked in ominous form after returning from injury, dealing mostly in fours and sixes to notch up his fifty in 34 balls.
