All-round Cummins knocks the wind out of MI

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the thirteenth game of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL). The match was played in the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. Pat Cummins was adjudged to be the Man of the Match.

Suryakumar Yadav returns with 50

MI started off extremely slowly and painfully, with both Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan finding strokemaking difficult. Umesh Yadav started beautifully as he has been throughout this tournament, and got rid of Rohit Sharma for a horrid 3 runs off 12 balls.

Dewald Brevis, on IPL debut, exhibited some exciting shots and seemed to bring some life to the game before perishing to Varun Chakravarthy. Soon after, Kishan, too, fell to Australian international Pat Cummins.

Suryakumar Yadav, who had been sidelined with injury for the past couple months, started off cautiously last night. Once he found his rhythm, though, there was no mercy.

Suryakumar took 18 balls before managing to find his first boundary of the match off Umesh. The next ball, he ramped the fast bowler for a six over third man. All of a sudden, the MI train was raging and Suryakumar was at the helm of it. He then went about tonking any bowler and raced to a 50 off 31 balls, leading MI, who at one stage looked to settle for 140, to get 150.

Varma and Pollard give Rahane nightmares

Just before Suryakumar had hit his first boundary of the night, two balls prior in fact, Ajinkya Rahane had made a royal mess of a catching opportunity after Tilak Varma skied the ball miles high. Back then, Varma was on 3, and the drop would prove costly for KKR.

After Suryakumar started to change things up for MI, Varma got in the act in the 16th over as well, amassing 13 runs off Cummins. After that, he slashed Chakravarthy for 17 runs in the next over with the help of his experienced batting partner.

It only further got worse for the Knight Riders, despite getting Suryakumar first ball of the last over. Kieron Pollard, the designated finisher for MI, came in and whacked 22 runs off 5 balls, lifting the team total to 161. As the teams headed back into the dressing room, Rahane was probably left wondering what if he had only taken that catch of Varma.

Russell out; game over?

161 was perhaps just about par for the team batting first. To have any chance of winning, they would have to make early inroads rather than just contain the chasing side, and Mumbai did just that.

Rahane was the first to depart after being cramped for room on the pull. Shreyas Iyer fell in similar fashion as well. Sam Billings ended up giving long-off an easy chance. Nitish Rana failed to capitalise on a poor ball off Murugan Ashwin. Andre Russell slashed straight to the fielder at point.

After the first ball of the 14th over, KKR were left teetering on 101/5, the MI bowlers having done a fantastic job. For most watching, the game was swinging the way of the men in blue and KKR, despite still having Venkatesh Iyer at the crease, needed something special from one of their players.

Cummins etches his name in the record books

If anyone had thought the game was over once Russell was gone, Cummins made them regret it. MI were pretty much one wicket away from securing victory, but the Australian had other ideas.

He went after anything and everything bowled at him, managing to find the boundary with the utmost of ease. It was as if he was practising in the nets, and swinging wildly at anything that came his way. Cummins perhaps surprised everyone, including himself, when 35 runs were required off 30 balls, but he dispatched his countryman Sams with absolute disdain to finish it all in one over.

The final over went 6, 4, 6, 6, 3 (no ball), 4, 6 - the penultimate ball being the one that brought up his fifty off just 14 balls, the joint fastest IPL fifty.