Pat Cummins slammed an unbeaten 56 off just 15 balls to take Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to a win with four overs to spare in Pune in Match 14 of IPL 2022. Cummins reached his fifty in 14 balls, the the joint-fastest in IPL history. The blitz not only helped Kolkata register their third win of the season but also improve their net run rate significantly. Mumbai Indians (MI), on the other hand, have now lost three out of three matches.
Mumbai Indians 161/4 in 20 overs
Kolkata won the toss and decided to bowl first as Cummins and Rasikh Salam replaced Tim Southee and Shivam Mavi. Mumbai, on the other hand, Indians welcomed back Suryakumar Yadav and gave Dewald Brevis his IPL cap, leaving out Anmolpreet Singh and Tim David.
The Mumbai innings featured different halves. Their openers visibly struggled against Umesh Yadav, who, in his second over dismissed bounced out Rohit Sharma for three. Brevis joined Ishan Kishan at No. 3 and started playing shots from the start. However, just when the duo seemed looking ready for a partnership, Brevis was stumped by Sam Billings off Varun Chakraborty for a 19-ball 29. The tone had been set.
Suryakumar Yadav was next in, but before he could proceed, Cummins had Kishan caught by Shreyas at mid wicket for a 21-ball 14. Suryakumar then found an ally in Tilak Varma, who never looked back after Ajinkya Rahane dropped him on three. Suryakumar began to improvise in characteristic fashion to reach his fifty. Cummins finally got him for 52 off the first ball of the last over.
Kieron Pollard then slammed 22 off the last five balls to take Mumbai to 161/4. They had scored 107 runs in the last 10 overs, including 76 off the last five.
Kolkata Knight Riders 162/5 in 16 overs
KKR started poorly, crawling to 16 in four overs before Tymal Mills snared Rahane for seven. Venkatesh Iyer, not at his fluent best, decided to drop anchor. Shreyas Iyer, Sam Billings, Nitish Rana and Andre Russell all got out trying to play shots; none of them crossed 17.
M. Ashwin got both Billings and Rana. Rohit completed the four overs of the spinners inside 12 overs of the innings, saving Mills and Jasprit Bumrah for the end. When Mills got Russell in the first ball of the fourteenth over, the move seemed to have worked.
KKR still needed 61 in 41 balls. Cummins came out to bat ahead of Sunil Narine, and hit a six and a four in the same over. At the other end, Venkatesh reached his first fifty of the season, but Cummins stole all limelight with another six and four in the next over.
With 35 to defend from five overs, Rohit turned to Daniel Sams. Cummins smashed 6, 4, 6, 6, 2 (no ball), 4, 6 to finish the match in the same over. He also completed his fifty and bagged the Player of the Match award.
Brief Scores
Mumbai Indians 161/4 (Suryakumar Yadav 52*; Pat Cummins 2-49) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 162/5 (Pat Cummins 56*; M. Ashwin 2-25, Tymal Mills 2-38) by 5 wickets with 24 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Pat Cummins.