Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma Agarwal conceded that they did not score enough on Friday to defend against Kolkata Knight Riders. Rohit credited Cummins, saying it was the KKR all-rounder who dented their hopes as he did not expect the Australia star to come out and play such an innings.
Cummins equaled the record for the fastest fifty ever in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday. He joined KL Rahul, reaching the landmark in only 14 balls during a match against the Mumbai Indians at the DY Patil Stadium in Pune.
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Cummins scored 35 off compatriot Daniel Sams’ bowling in the 16th over, to take Kolkata over the line with four overs to spare. The Australian Test captain finished with 56 off mere 15 balls, hammering four fours and six sixes.
“Never expected him to come and play like that [on Cummins]. Lot of credit. The pitch got better and better to bat as the game went on. It was holding up initially. Overall it was a good pitch,” Rohit said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“With the bat we did not start well, in the last 4-5 overs to get 70+ was a great effort from the batting unit. We did not bowl according to the plan. We had the game till the 15th over, but then Cummins was brilliant.
“Whenever you have runs on the board, we always have the upper hand, We had them 5-down, it was just a matter of the wicket of Venky or Pat, they had Sunil who could smash them.
Venkatesh Iyer steadied the ship and in the end, it was Cummins who was playing his first game and scored the joint-fastest fifty in the IPL of 14 balls and took the game away from MI in just one over. Mumbai Indians’ horror run continued on Sunday as the 5-time champions slumped to their third successive defeat .
“This will be hard to digest, the way it turned out in the last few overs. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. I don’t want to be in this position all the time [frustrated smile],” Rohit signed off.
Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav’s fine fifty, Tilak Verma’s solid 38-run knock, Dewald Brevis’ impressive IPL debut and Kieron Pollard’s last over cameo helped Mumbai Indians post 161 for 4 after being asked to bat first by Kolkata Knight Riders.
Kolkata Knight Riders stormed to victory by 5 wickets vs Mumbai Indians at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Wednesday. They have now replaced Rajasthan Royals as the No.1 in the IPL 2022 points table.