CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO- Venkatesh Iyer’s sparkling century for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was in vain as Mumbai Indians (MI) cruised to a convincing five-wicket victory in their Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 match played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
The 28-year-old left-hander from Madhya Pradesh smashed the second century of IPL 2023, off 49 balls to help his team reach a formidable 185 for six before MI fired all cylinders to overtake that score with five wickets and 14 balls to spare.
Wicket-keeper opening batsman Ishan Kishan led the run chase with a blistering 58 from just 25 deliveries during an explosive innings, which included five sixes and the same number of boundaries.
He added 65 runs for the first wicket along with Rohit Sharma from 4.5 overs before Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma consolidated their position with a third wicket partnership of 60 runs.
However, KKR made a brief comeback into the game and slowed down the run-rate during the latter stages through some excellent bowling from Suyash Sharma and Shardul Thakur.
It was at this stage that Australian Tim David came into MI’s rescue as he took the game away from KKR by smashing an unbeaten 24 from just 13 deliveries inclusive of two sixes and one boundary.
Earlier, Iyer played a lone hand for MI after they were put into bat as he completed his maiden hundred in all T20s while hoisting nine sixes and stroking six boundaries before he was dismissed in the 18th over.
Lyer became the second KKR batsman to score a hundred in the IPL, after Brendon McCullum, who had struck a blistering century (158 n.o off 73 balls) against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first-ever IPL match in 2008.
His previous best in the IPL was a 40-ball 83 which came against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad last week.
Chief scores
Kolkata Knight Riders: 185/6 in 20 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 104, Andre Russell 21 n.o, Hrithik Shokeen 2/34)
Mumbai Indians: 186/5 in 17.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 20, Ishan Kishan 58, Suryakumar Yadav 43, Tilak Varma 30, Tim David 24 n.o, Suyash Sharma 2/27).
