Iyer century in vain as MI breeze past KKR

The Mumbai Indians clinched their second successive victory in IPL 2023 as they comfortably outmatched the Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Venkatesh Iyer scripted history for KKR with the bat, becoming just the first player since Brendon McCullum on the opening night of the maiden IPL season in 2008 to score a century.

However, Iyer’s blitz wasn’t enough to nullify a power-packed Mumbai batting unit as contributions from Ishan Kishan (58 off 25) and Suryakumar Yadav (43 off 25) helped the home side comfortably chase down KKR’s total of 185 with 14 balls to spare.

MI started brightly after winning the toss and putting KKR into bat in the scorching Mumbai heat. Making his IPL debut, Arjun Tendulkar conceded just five runs in the opening over, while Cameron Green removed N Jagadeesan for nought. However, Venkatesh Iyer wasted no time at the crease and went after the inexperienced Mumbai attack. The left-hander sprayed the ball to all parts of the ground against Arjun Tendulkar, Cameron Green, and Duan Jansen, taking KKR to 55 for 1 in five overs.

Piyush Chawla dismissed Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the final over of the powerplay but Iyer kept up his offensive onslaught, reaching a 23-ball half-century. Iyer punished the spin of Hrithik Shokeen and creamed Riley Meredith for consecutive sixes. The left-hander received little support from his teammates, with Nitish Rana and the promoted Shardul Thakur falling cheaply, but Iyer spurred the visitors forward and brought up his maiden IPL century in just 49 deliveries.

Iyer eventually departed for 104 in the 18th over, and Andre Russell gave KKR an extra push in the last two overs, smacking three fours and a six to take the team to 185 for 6.

In reply, MI wasted no time in the chase and added a season-high 72 runs in the powerplay to put the pressure back on the visitors. Ishan Kishan carted three wide deliveries from Shardul Thakur through the cover region and added a trio of boundaries alongside Rohit Sharma in the next over from Umesh Yadav.

Nitish Rana turned to Sunil Narine to stop the run-flow, but the move backfired as the West Indian conceded 22 to take MI to 57 in four overs. Umesh Yadav took an excellent catch to remove Rohit Sharma in the fifth, but Kishan got to his half-century in 21 deliveries to keep MI on track.

The left-hander fell to Varun Chakravarthy for 58, but Suryakumar Yadav regained some much-needed form to continue MI’s momentum before Tim David played the perfect finisher’s role to take the home side to a comfortable victory in front of their fans.