Kolkata Knight Riders all-rounder Pat Cummins made a grand entrance into this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), scoring the joint-fastest fifty in the tournament’s history in his first match of the season against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday. Coming in to bat with KKR needing 61 from 41 deliveries with five wickets in hand, Cummins smashed a half-century in 14 deliveries, equalling KL Rahul for the fastest IPL fifty. He then finished the match with a six to seal a victory in 16 overs.
A match that was set up to have a close finish ended up as a rather emphatic victory for KKR, sealed in quick time thanks to Cummins’ blitzkrieg.
Former India batter Wasim Jaffer took to Twitter to share a meme featuring the hit Queen song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to describe Pat Cummins’ knock.
The picture showed former Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and the lyrics tweaked to say “Mama, I just killed a match.”
.@patcummins30 right now: #KKRvMI #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/0IXQrH9UCF
– Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) April 6, 2022
Cummins finished unbeaten on 56 off 15 deliveries and his knock was studded with four boundaries and six maximums.
MI pacer Daniel Sams bore the majority of the brunt as the Australia Test captain smashed him for 35 runs in the 16th over.
MI had set KKR a target of 162, after Suryakumar Yadav (52 off 36) and Tilak Varma (38 off 27) rescued the team after a top-order collapse.
Kieron Pollard then smashed 22 off five deliveries off Pat Cummins in the final over of MI’s innings to help provide them a strong finish.
KKR were two wickets down inside the Powerplay, as they lost seasoned opener Ajinkya Rahane and skipper Shreyas Iyer.
Sam Billings then provided some much needed impetus to the KKR innings, with Venkatesh Iyer hanging on at the other end.
However, Billings fell and Nitish Rana followed soon after.
The in-form Andre Russell looked to continue from where he left off and started to attack straight away, only to be beaten by a Tymal Mills bouncer to depart for 11 off 5.
When Cummins walked out, the match was still hanging in the balance, with KKR losing wickets in quick succession, but he then went on to finish the match in style.
Promoted
Venkatesh Iyer also scored an unbeaten half-century, hitting six boundaries and one six in his 41-ball 50.
Cummins joined the KKR squad late as he was with his national team for Australia’s tour of Pakistan.
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