“This will be hard to digest,” said a dejected and shocked Mumbai captain R Sharma on Wednesday night in Pune before adding, “The way it turned out to be in the last few overs. There is a lot of hard work we need to put in.”
R Sharma’s disappointment and shock was both evident and obvious. For until the 14th over of the second innings in their Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 Match No 14 against Kolkata, the five-time champions had dominated the proceedings and set themselves up for the first win of the season.
Mumbai had reduced Kolkata to 101/5 in 13.1 overs and fresh from a break of about 10 days since he led Australia to a 1-0 Test series win in Pakistan in their first tour in 28 years, Pat Cummins had joined Venkatesh Iyer in the middle and the next man to follow was Sunil Narine.
At that stage in the game, Kolkata needed another 61 runs to win from 41 deliveries.
Cummins began with a boundary and a six of English pacer Tymal Mills on the last two deliveries on the 14th over and meted out a similar treatment to Mumbai's star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, bringing down the equation to 35 needed from 30 balls.
Any other side would perhaps have taken it easy thereon since victory could have also been achieved going run-a-ball, but Cummins had other ideas. He finished the game on the final ball of the 16th over from compatriot Daniel Sams, a cricketer who is still polishing his skills in the ruthless, unforgiving shortest format of the sport.
Daniel Sams got it all wrong in terms of pitching the ball and forgot the thumb rule of playing at the MCA Stadium in Pune that if you, as a bowler, pitch the ball in the wrong area, the batsmen are going to take full advantage of it.
And Pat Cummins did not spare any of the following six deliveries that were in his slot to produce one of the most ruthless knocks witnessed in the tournament so far, one that will be remembered for a long time to come.
Pat Cummins hammered a staggering total of four sixes and two boundaries to finish off the game by the end of the 16th over, reaching 56 not out from just 15 balls to not only score the fastest half-century of the ongoing edition of the Indian T20 cricket league 2022, but also equal their record of the fastest half-century scored ever in the history of the 15-year-old tournament.
At the other end, Venkatesh Iyer was only thankful that he was able to bring up his half-century in the previous over, as he remained unbeaten on 50 from 41 balls when the game got over.
Mumbai had all the right to be disappointed at the end of it all given that they had worked incredibly hard to get close to recording their first victory in the tournament.
But as things stand now, Kolkata are at the top of the points table for the Indian T20 cricket league 2022 tournament, whereas Mumbai are at the second last spot with three defeats in as many matches giving them 0 points and a negative Net Run Rate of -1.362.
The whirlwind knock from Pat Cummins overshadowed a quality half-century scored by Mumbai’s comeback batting mainstay Suryakumar Yadav, whose 52 literally guided them to a total of 161/4 earlier in the contest.
With their captain R Sharma dismissed for a single-digit score for the second match on the trot and young gun Ishan Kishan falling for 14 — after two consecutive fifties to begin with —the responsibility of guiding Mumbai to a respectable total fell on the able shoulders of Suryakumar Yadav, who did not disappoint at all.
Suryakumar Yadav was involved in an 83-run stand with Tilak Varma for the fourth wicket which powered Mumbai to a total they thought was enough to get the better of a faltering Kolkata batsmen, whose key players continued to disappoint.
Tilak Varma yet again gave a fine example of his prowess with the bat, scoring 38 from 27 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes whereas Suryakumar Yadav scored 52 from 36 balls, collecting his runs in all parts of the ground while hitting 5 boundaries and 2 sixes.
Kolkata captain Shreyas Iyer disappointed once again as he fell for 10 whereas wicket-keeper batsman Sam Billings was dismissed for 17.
Kolkata also endured another disappointing return from their batting mainstay Nitish Rana, who was dismissed by Murugan Ashwin for his second wicket for eight, after the right of Mumbai spinner had removed Billings from the equation.
Ashwin was undoubtedly the most effective bowler on Wednesday night from both the teams, returning with 3-0-25-2 whereas Umesh Yadav continued to impress in his tight spell of 4-0-25-1.
Andre Russell was dismissed buy Tymal Mills for a five ball 11, with the Mumbai pacer also accounting for Ajinkya Rahane, bouncing out the former Indian Test vice-captain for an 11-ball 7.
Mumbai will look to pick themselves up and find a way to record their first victory in the tournament on Saturday when they take on Bangalore in the match to be played at the same venue in the evening whereas Kolkata will look to produce another inspired performance against Delhi in their clash on Sunday afternoon at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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