Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a five-wicket defeat at the hands of five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede on Sunday (April 16) despite Venkatesh Iyer's maiden century in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
MI's regular skipper Rohit Sharma initially wasn't included in the playing XI due to stomach bug which saw Suryakumar Yadav walking in for the toss as stand-in captain.
Batting first KKR rode on Venkatesh's blistering 104 off 51 to post a challenging total of 185/6 on the board. But to everyone's surprise during MI's innings Rohit came in as impact player to open with Ishan Kishan. However, Rohit, who was adjudged the Player of the Match in MI's previous match, couldn't score big this time and was dismissed after scoring 20 off 13 balls. But the way Rohit was dismissed caught everyone's attention. KKR's mystery spinner came with the fifth over and Rohit dispatched young leggie for a six. On the fifth ball of the over, Rohit tried to punch a fullish ball towards mid-on where Umesh Yadav was stationed. Umesh pulled off a stunning Superman catch to get rid of the dangerous looking Hitman. The Vidarbha pacer spotted the ball and made and stretched his full body like a goal-keeper towards his left and grabbed Rohit's catch. After witnessing Umesh's athleticism, Rohit was seen laughing in surprise before he walked back to the hut.
Watch the viral video here…
However, Rohit's dismissal did not deter Kishan at the other end, and the wicketkeeper-batter found crucial form to hit an impressive 58 off just 25 balls with 5 fours and as many sixes at a strike rate of 232 as well. But Varun Chakravarthy got the all-important breakthrough to send Kishan back to the pavilion, and the match looked to be bending in the visitor's favour. But this was not to be.
With just 16 runs in four matches, there was a lot of pressure on Suryakumar Yadav heading into the match against the Kolkata Knight Riders. He responded to the added responsibility in some style and went on to score an impressive 43 off 25 balls. His innings included 4 fours and 3 sixes and struck the ball at a rate of 172.00 which helped MI easily chase down the total with 14 balls to spare.
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