Venkatesh Iyer’s sizzling knock of 104 went in vain as Mumbai Indians beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by 5 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
After being asked to bat first, Kolkata Knight Riders lost Narayan Jagadeesan to a brilliant diving catch by Hrithik Shokeen off Cameron Green for a duck.
The pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Iyer added 46 runs for the second wicket stand before the former perished to Piyush Chawla for 8.
Skipper Nitish Rana fell cheaply for 5, as the Knight Riders were reduced to 73/3. The likes of Shardul Thakur (13) and Rinku Singh (18) failed to make significant contributions.
However left hander Venkatesh Iyer scored a scintillating maiden hundred to take KKR to 185/6 in their 20 overs.
Chasing 186, Rohit Sharma who did not feature in the playing XI, came in as the Impact Player in place of Riley Meredith. He added 65 runs for the opening wicket along side Ishan Kishan before Rohit fell to a brilliant catch by Umesh Yadav off Suyash Sharma for 20.
Kishan looked in a magnificent form, smashing five fours and five sixes in his innings of 58. His stupendous knock ended when he was bowled by Varun Chakravarthy, while attempting a slog sweep.
Stand in skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma brought the innings back on track with a 60 run stand for the third wicket before the latter was bowled by Suyash Sharma for 30.
Suryakumar fell before the finish line, caught behind by wicket keeper Gurbaz off Shardul Thakur for a 25 ball-43.
However, Tim David scored a quickfire 13 ball-24, as Mumbai overhauled the target of 186 with 14 balls to spare.