Venkatesh Iyer seems to love playing against Mumbai Indians: Mike Hesson

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) by 18 runs at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Saturday, securing their ninth victory of IPL 2024. Kolkata Knight Riders scored 157 runs in the rain-affected match and restricted Mumbai Indians to a total of 139 from their quota of 16 overs, becoming the first team to seal a spot in the play-offs of this season. JioCinema IPL experts Brett Lee, Mike Hesson, and RP Singh praised the performances of Varun Chakaravarthy (2/17) and Venkatesh Iyer (42 runs), on Match Centre Live. 

Brett Lee spoke on Varun Chakaravarthy - "He bowled beautifully. He made efforts to pick the hard length, he banged the ball short in the wicket which did not allow the batsmen to get underneath the ball and made the cross-bat shots difficult.”

RP Singh spoke  on KKR Spinners - "They bowl as a partnership, they know the conditions well and they utilized it to good effect. They bowled good lengths and made full use of the match-ups. Sunil Narine kept it tight against Rohit allowing Varun to bowl with freedom, he used his variations to good effect and bowled very well. These two have bowled well consistently, even when they don’t get wickets, they restrict the flow of runs well."

Mike Hesson spoke on Venkatesh Iyer - “He seems to love playing against Mumbai Indians. He got hit on the knee earlier but that did not seem to stop him. He timed everything beautifully, batted with a strike rate of over 200 and when everybody else was struggling because of the seaming ball, he played a match-winning hand." 

After KKR's victory in rain-curtailed encounter, they became the first team to qualify for IPL 2024 playoffs. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians have already been eliminated from IPL 2024 and will their remaining clashes for pride.