Twitter Reactions: Pat Cummins' joint-fastest IPL fifty leaves MI shell shocked in Pune

Wow!! Out of all the hitters playing in the game, Pat Cummins turned out to be the best one. The man landed in India after playing the Test matches in Pakistan and just nonchalantly smacked six sixes and four fours during his record breaking innings to help Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) chase down 162 with four overs to spare against Mumbai Indians. In the process, he also smashed a joint-fastest fifty in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL).

The chase of 162 runs felt like a straightforward one for KKR to start with. But MI’s new ball bowlers started off smartly keeping Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer on the tenterhooks. The pressure affected Rahane who was scalped by Tymal Mills while Shreyas Iyer was undone by a bouncer yet again. KKR were 35/2 at the end of powerplay and the opener Iyer somehow kept going and found his groove midway through the innings.

Sam Billings spent some time with him in the middle for a 32-run stand but Murugan Ashwin nipped him and Nitish Rana out to make it 83/4 in the 12th over. Andre Russell started his innings with a marauding six off Murugan Ashwin but Tymal Mills’ short ball got the better of him very easily.

MI had the upper hand now but little did they know that Pat Cummins will come out and shatter records like anything. Cummins came out to bat in the 14th over of the innings and the game ended with four overs still left. The Australian scored all the runs since then smacking 4 fours and 6 sixes to hit the joint fastest in the history of IPL.

MI were shell shocked looking at the assault but they had no option to admire the hitting as they went down for the third game in a row.

Surya, Tilak and Pollard propel MI to 161

Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav shone in his first game of the season. Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan struggled completely during their innings which led to Mumbai Indians starting off slowly. The fact that the debutant Dewald Brevis played a few good shots including a ‘no-look’ six resembling AB de Villiers helped the five-time champions to recover their run-rate during the powerplay.

The pitch was indeed a tough one for the new batter and even Surya struggled to get going from the word go. Once Brevis was dismissed for a well-made 29 off 19, Tilak Varma came out and then he joined hands with a set Surya to rebuild the innings. Varma started off slowly as well but by then Suryakumar Yadav was in his beast mode. He smashed Umesh Yadav for a four and a six to disturb his excellent figures.

The duo pressed on the accelerator in the last five overs with Varma showing his range of shots as well. The youngster has already impressed with his batting but against KKR, he showed off his death overs hitting skills taking on World number 1 Test bowler Pat Cummins. Surya, at the other end, smacked Sunil Narine in his last over to reach a well deserved half-century.

While MI seemed to be getting to a score of around 150 when the last over commenced, it all changed in the last five balls. Kieron Pollard put on an exhibition of powerful striking to smash 22 runs off just five balls including three sixes. He swing so hard off the last two deliveries that only the edge went for six down the third man area.

Thanks to his knock, MI posted 161 runs in their 20 overs with Surya scoring 52 while Tilak remaining unbeaten on 38 off 27 deliveries. The five-time champions scored a massive 76 runs in their last five overs to post a competitive total on the board.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: