Premier pacer Pat Cummins amassed 35 runs in an over, equalling the record for the fastest fifty in the IPL as Kolkata Knight Riders crushed Mumbai Indians by five wickets 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 in his 15-ball 56.
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.
Daniel Sams bore the brunt of Cummins’ onslaught the most, conceding 35 runs in the 16th over, which sealed it for KKR.
Together with Iyer, Cummins, who came in at number six, shared 61 runs in just 2.1 overs to overhaul MI’s total of 161 for four.
MI, thus, slumped to their third defeat in as many matches. The wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and skipper Shreyas Iyer made life difficult for KKR as they slumped to 35 for two in the sixth over.
Out of the the 30 encounters between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders across 15 seasons of IPL so far, Mumbai have been completely dominating the Knights defeating them 22 times. The Kolkata Knight Riders with only 8 victories against the Mumbai Indians have failed miserably in their desperate attempts to put up a fight.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, shreyas Iyer (c), Sam Billings(w), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav , Rasikh Salam, Varun Chakaravarthy
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Kieron Pollard, Daniel Sams, Dewald Brevis, Murugan Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Tymal Mills, Basil Thampi
