Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai Indians, 14th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

If you're a punter and predicted Pat Cummins to equal the fastest IPL fifty ever, you should probably take lottery tickets every day of the week. That was one heck of a knock and Mumbai Indians' winless season continues. Three losses on the bounce and that's never an ideal start but they're used to bouncing back from shaky beginnings, so that think-tank won't panic just yet. As for KKR, it's been a year of changes, right from the leadership and the initial signs are that they are gelling well, even though they haven't played their A game yet like Shreyas Iyer admitted. The IPL caravan moves to the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy Stadium in Mumbai tomorrow as Lucknow take on Delhi. That should be another cracking game of cricket. Do join us for that one. Until next time, this is Hari Sadanandan signing off on behalf of Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Raju Peethala and Siva. Cheers!

Pat Cummins | Player of the Match: I probably think I'm most surprised by that innings. I'm glad that it came off. I was thinking of having a swing if it was in my area. Wasn't trying to overthink it. Very satisfying to do it on my first game this season. Was just trying to pepper the shorter boundary. The hard thing after a big auction is that there are a lot of changes from last year. It's a good mix of talent out there and quite relaxed with the boys.

Shreyas Iyer: Extraordinary! I couldn't believe the way he (Cummins) was hitting the ball. Because yesterday in the nets, he was getting bowled now and then, I was batting in the nets beside him then. During the timeout, the plan was for Venky to drop anchor and tell Pat to just swing at everything because that's what he was doing before too. When I went into bat, I told him to just time the ball because he was overhitting the ball a bit. We have to take responsibility as top order batters. All of us have the ability to hit the ball long. In the powerplay both innings, the pitch was quite the same. After the powerplay, it got a lot easier I guess.

Statistical inputs from Deepu Narayanan

Most expensive overs in IPL
37 P Parameshwaran vs RCB Bengaluru 2011
37 Harshal Patel vs CSK Mumbai WS 2021
35 Daniel Sams vs KKR Pune 2022 *
33 Ravi Bopara vs KKR Kolkata 2010
33 Parwinder Awana vs CSK Mumbai WS 2014

KKR in IPL games in Pune: Played 7 | Won 7

Fastest 50s in IPL (balls faced)
14 KL Rahul vs DC Mohali 2018
14 Pat Cummins vs MI Pune 2022 *
15 Yusuf Pathan vs SRH Kolkata 2014
15 Sunil Narine vs RCB Bengaluru 2017

Pat Cummins last 3 inngs vs MI
33(12)
53*(36)
56*(15) --- today

Venkatesh Iyer: For everyone other than Pat it (pitch) looked tricky. Really happy that I was there till the end, Gotta give it to Pat, unbelievable hitting on display on a pitch that was actually very tricky to bat on. There will be days where you may not hit the balls as well as you want, but with the batting line-up we have it was important for me to stay there till end and play that anchor role so that the rest of the batsmen can play freely and attack from ball one.

Rohit Sharma: 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. 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. 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 on being pointed out that MI have been in this position before at the start of an IPL season].

23:01 Local Time, 17:31 GMT, 23:01 IST: What was all that talk about the pitch being sticky and being difficult to start on?? Pat Cummins laughed it off and smashed 10 boundary shots in the 15 balls he faced, burying the game in the blink of an eye. Mumbai thought they had the game once the feared Devil, Dre Russ, fell to a pacy Mills short ball. Little did they know, that KKR had an imposter trained to take down the enemy. Nobody was spared, not even Bumrah as Cummins swiped, heaved, swept and slogged his side home. Credit to Venkatesh Iyer too though, wasn't at his fluent best at all but somehow got stuck in at one end, eventually getting the ideal foil in Cummins. Look at Andre Russell's special dancing moves that he's dedicated to his Australian teammate. When the West Indian is impressed by someone's hitting, that's high praise. For a major part of the chase though, KKR were stumbling on a surface that actually was tricky (don't be fooled by Cummins' assault), and Mumbai had a score that was challenging. But sometimes, you can't do anything when a player bats like a man possessed.

Daniel Sams to Cummins, SIX, and just like that, Cummins has ended the game with four over still left! What on earth have we just witnessed here!!! Phewwwwww!! Another length ball, right into Cummins's swinging arc and the murderous mood that he is in, nothing will be spared. This is blasted straight down the ground, over the sightscreen

Daniel Sams to Cummins, FOUR, another superb shot to bring up a 14-ball fifty! Slower ball, Cummins walks across early and whips it away through square leg. Field is up that side and it races to the fence

Daniel Sams to Cummins, no ball, 2 runs, taken brilliantly by SKY at long-off but it's a waist-high full toss from Sams! Cummins still got enough bat on this to almost find another maximum. A one-handed slice down the ground and SKY caught it initially before realising that the momentum might take him beyond the ropes. Lobbed it in the air and came back from outside into the ground to take the catch. The third ump has a look but that's perfectly fine, tremendous effort from Surya

Daniel Sams to Cummins, SIX, come on, Pat!! You're making a proper mockery of Mumbai's target here! It's a joke surely. Sams errs in line this time, fine leg is up and Cummins goes that side now. Shuffling across and helping it all the way over the ropes. This is a tsunami from Australia and the game has been shaken up completely

Daniel Sams to Cummins, SIX, kabooooooooooom! Rohit looks shell-shocked, as do his MI mates. When someone like Bumrah is getting a pasting, what chance does Sams have? Feeds this in the arc, Cummins shuffles and heaves, all the way over deep square leg. Incredible batting this!

Daniel Sams to Cummins, FOUR, pressure on Sams and he's missed the yorker again, juicy full toss this time and Cummins heaves with all the power in the world. Over mid-wicket and the fielder in the deep was a bit squarer

Daniel Sams to Cummins, SIX, Cummins is putting on a powerhitting masterclass here! Some sublime hits and he's clearing the ropes quite easily too. Sams misses the yorker, it's in the arc and Cummins clobbers it straight down the ground. Flat hit and long-on has no chance

Daniel Sams [2.0-0-15-1] is back into the attack

Manohar Babu: Even though in the last season, we've seen KKR messing up straightforward run chases, Qualifier 2 being the prime example. Their firepower is never in question, but in a bid to be aggressive, batters play shots all the time, keeping them on the verge of collapses.

Bumrah to Cummins, 1 run, very full and around, jammed put past mid-wicket