Images from the Indian Premier league match between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders, in Abu Dhabi, on Thursday.
Rookie batter Venkatesh Iyer left cricket fans in awe of his talent as Kolkata Knight Riders produced a clinical performance for the second successive match since the Indian Premier League's resumption to tame defending champions Mumbai Indians by seven wickets and enter the top-four in the eight-team league, in Abu Dhabi, on Thursday.
Playing only his second IPL game, Iyer (53 off 30) displayed a wide range of strokes alongside Rahul Tripathi (74 not out off 42 balls) to enable the Knight Riders to chase down Mumbai Indians’ modest total of 155 for 6, with as many as 29 balls to spare.
Earlier, Quinton de Kock struck an entertaining 55 for Mumbai Indians before the KKR bowlers fought back in the last 10 overs, conceding 75 runs and taking five wickets.
Shubman Gill and Iyer gave KKR another flying start as the first two overs, bowled by Trent Boult and Adam Milne, went for 15 runs each.
Gill flicked Boult for a delightful six while Iyer pulled the New Zealand pace spearhead to set the tone for the rest of the innings.
Jasprit Bumrah checked KKR’s momentum by rattling Gill's stumps in the third over, but it had little impact on Iyer, who went on to play a memorable knock, studded with four boundaries and three sixes.
Iyer and Tripathi shared an 88-run stand for the second wicket which completely shut the door on Mumbai Indians, who crashed to their second straight defeat in the second phase of the IPL resumption and dropped down to sixth, above Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Before Thursday's match, the Knight Riders had a dismal record against Mumbai Indians, registering just six wins in 28 games, but Iyer and Tripathi helped the franchise turn around their fortunes.
Earlier, Quinton de Kock scored an entertaining half-century before Kolkata Knight Riders bounced back to restrict Mumbai Indians.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma, who sat out of the opening game in the second phase of the tournament against Chennai Super Kings, also played his part as Mumbai got off to a good start in the match.
He got the innings off in scintillating fashion, caressing a Nitish Rana delivery to the mid-off boundary and then took the attack to mystery spinner Varun Charkravarthy, scoring two consecutive fours off the first two deliveries of the fourth over.
De Kock (55 off 42) was not to be left behind and matched his skipper stroke for stroke, pulling a Lockie Ferguson delivery over the fence for the first maximum of the match.
Introduced into the attack in the sixth over, Prasidh Krishna was thrashed by de Kock. The medium pacer was hit twice over the fence. The South African picked 16 runs from Krishna's first over as Mumbai cantered to 56 without loss.
De Kock was unstoppable. He welcomed Andre Russell with consecutive fours.
KKR skipper Eoin Morgan exhausted trump card Chakravarthy (4-0-22-0) by the 11th over with Mumbai’s openers unseparated.
With de Kock going hammer and tongs, Rohit played second fiddle, scoring 33 runs off 30 balls, before Sunil Narine got his man for the ninth time in T20s. He holed out to Shubman Gill at the boundary, ending an invaluable opening partnership of 78 runs for Mumbai.
Suryakumar Yadav (5) was done in by a fine out-swinger from Krishna, as the batter edged one to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps in the 13th over.
De Kock then notched his 50 with a single of Ferguson in the 14th over.
KKR did well to pull things back between overs 10 and 15 overs, conceding only 26 runs and picking two wickets.
Pollard, as he often does, came up with much-needed big hits in the last five overs, including a flat-batted six over mid-wicket in Krishna's 18-run over.
Ferguson then bowled a brilliant last over for KKR, removing the dangerous duo of Pollard and Krunal Pandya (12) at the cost of only six runs, as Mumbai collected 49 runs from the last five overs and 75 in the last 10.
