Mumbai, Apr 16 (FN Agency) Special knocks by Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) helped Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets at Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday. Sent into bat, Kolkata posted 185/6 in 20 overs with the help of a glorious maiden IPL century by Venkatesh Iyer. Kishan and SKY found some form again as the Mumbai opener smashed a quickfire fifty, before Varun Chakravarthy knocked him over. He hammered 58 runs in 25 balls with five boundaries and sixes each. SKY pulverised any hopes of Kolkata bouncing back into the game along with inform Tilak Varma. SKY, the stand-in captain for today’s match, played a few trademark pick-up shots over square leg to the fans’ delight. An absolute 360-degree batsman, did not stay till end to see his team crossing over the mark as he was caught by Rahmatullah Gurbaz off Shardul Thakur after making a valuable 43 off 25 balls with 4 boundaries and 3 sixes.
However, from the dugout SKY watched Tim David finishing the job with a cameo, scoring 24 off 13 balls with a boundary and 2 sixes. Rohit Sharma who was sitting out while fielding due to a stomach bug, came in as an Impact Player and began smashing Kolkata bowlers around the park for the first couple of overs. Kishan was in top gear as well, and plundered 16 runs off Shardul’s first over, and 17 off Umesh Yadav’s second over and then 22 off Sunil Narine’s first over, along with Rohit. Because of their double-engine onslaught, Mumbai sat pretty with the powerplay itself as they raced away to 72 runs. For Kolkata, Suyash Sharma (2/27), Chakravarthy (1/38), Lockie Ferguson (1/19) and Shardul (1/25), were the wicket-takers. Earlier, Iyer’s superb century helped Kolkata to post 185 on the board. He was in red-hot form as he took the attack to the opposition from the very beginning, despite Camero Green picking up an early wicket to send N Jagadeesan back for a duck.
Gurbaz (8) and Nitish Rana (5) couldn’t make an impression, but Iyer was in belligerent form, sending the white cherry over the ropes at will, despite it being holding and gripping a bit. Shardul’s (13 off 11) promotion did not pay dividends, but Iyer continued with his sparkling show and reached his maiden IPL century, before he was caught by Duan Jansen off Riley Meredith. Iyer scored 104 off 51 balls with 6 boundaries and 9 sixes, besides becoming the first Kolkata batsman to get a century after Brendon McCullum hammering one 15 years ago for the franchise. Amidst this, Piyush Chawla (1/19) halted Kolkata’s flow of runs. Andre Russell (21* off 11 3x4s 1×6) also played a good cameo, but Rinku Singh (18 off 18 2x4s) was unlike himself today. Mumbai conceded just 45 in the last 5 overs and pulled things back a bit. Other wicket takers for Mumbai were Hrithik Shokeen (2/34), and Jansen (1/53). Left-arm debutant pacer Arjun Tendukar, son of legendary Sachin Tendulkar, went wicketless in two overs.