After defeating the Mumbai Indians (MI) by 5 wickets at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Wednesday, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) moved to the top of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 table. As KKR chased down the goal of 162 with four overs to spare, Pat Cummins astonished everyone with his batting skills, making the joint-fastest half-century in the IPL. Kolkata Knight Riders lost Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket early in their chase for 162, when the right-handed batter was caught in the deep in the fifth over off Tymal Mills’ bowling.
On the final ball of the powerplay, KKR lost skipper Shreyas Iyer to Daniel Sams, who took his first wicket of the day, and KKR were 35-2 after six overs. After hitting sixes against Murugan Ashwin and Basil Thampi, Sam Billings, the new hitter in the crease, improved the scoring rate. KKR lost Billings’ wicket when the right-hander holed out to long-off against Murugan Ashwin. Venkatesh Iyer struck his first maximum of the session. Nitish Rana sliced a six over third base for 14 runs in the 11th over. Murugan Ashwin’s second victim was the left-handed hitter, who was caught at deep mid-wicket.
Suryakumar played a slog-sweep to smash a massive maximum followed by a four against Narine in the 18th over, putting MI in a terrific position with three overs to go. Suryakumar and Varma both scored four runs in the penultimate over Andre Russell. Suryakumar was caught behind for 52 runs, but MI concluded the game on a high note after Keiron Pollard’s three sixes helped MI to 161-4 in the first innings.
Cummins sped to his fifty in just 14 balls, joining KL Rahul at the top of the table, while opener Venkatesh Iyer smashed his way through the innings for an unbroken 41-ball 50 as KKR chased down 162 with four overs to spare.