Venkatesh Iyer's scintillating 51-ball 104 for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was the highlight of the evening but it was not enough to prevent a five-wicket loss at the hands of the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday's (April 16) first match of the day.
It was the 28-year-old's maiden century in the IPL and only the second in the team's history after Brendon McCullum's century for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening match of IPL 2008. Venkatesh was the main aggressor for KKR despite the team losing wickets and struggling against the opponent bowlers. For Mumbai, some impressive power hitting from their top order helped them chase down the target of 180 runs with ease.
Ishan Kishan's blitzkrieg
Rohit Sharma sat out the first innings after suffering from a stomach bug ahead of the match but came in to open the batting as an impact substitute. He combined very well with Ishan Kishan in the powerplay, taking the game to the KKR bowlers and finding the boundary regularly.
Rohit departed after scoring 20 runs off 13 balls with 1 four and 2 sixes to his name. This 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.
Suryakumar Yadav returns to form, leads MI to victory
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.
He found the boundary often but also rotated the strike on a regular basis to give the young Tilak Varma a chance to go at the opponent batters. The duo combined for a partnership of 60 runs from 38 balls as they ensured that MI were well below the required run rate. But Shardul Thakur broke their partnership after Surya edged the ball to Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
The damage was already done by then, and Tim David and Tilak Varma played carefree shots to reduce the deficit even further. Despite getting the wickets of Nehal Wadhera and Tilak at the business end of the innings, David hit the winning runs in the 17th over as MI sealed the win by wickets with 14 balls to spare.
Venkatesh Iyer: KKR's lone ranger
KKR's batting unit have hit more than 600 runs in the last three matches, which might have been an indicator of how good they have been this season. However, they could not fire against the might of the MI bowlers, succumbing on regular intervals as Venkatesh kept the pressure up at the other end of the pitch.
In fact, for the first 11 overs of the match, he was the only Kolkata batter who found the boundary on a regular for KKR!
By the 12th over, Venkatesh Iyer had 5 fours and 7 sixes while the rest of the KKR batters had 0 fours and 0 sixes. Coming in to bat at no.3 after the wicket of N Jagadeesan, he was hit on the knee and seemed in extreme pain for the next few overs, limping while running in between the wickets.
After stabilising his batting, Venkatesh took the game to the bowlers, taking them on and finding the boundary regularly. He went on to complete his century in the 17th over and then hit one more boundary before losing his wicket off Rilee Meredith's bowling. He finished with a score of 104, smashing 6 fours and 9 sixes, while his team set a target of 180 runs for the home side.
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