Mumbai have lived up to their reputation as the slow starter in the Indian T20 League 2022. They have lost all three matches in the tournament so far. Their latest defeat was in the 14th match of the tournament against Kolkata.
Kolkata and Mumbai faced each other at the MCA Stadium in Pune. The men in Purple won the toss and decided to field first. Mumbai with the help of Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Kieron Pollard put up a total of 161 runs in their 20 overs.
When Kolkata came out to chase down the target and the batters were not finding it easy to get going. They were 101 for 5 down in the 14th over of the innings. The equation for Kolkata at this stage was 61 runs required off 41 deliveries. It looked like Mumbai are in an advantageous position with the dangerous Andre Russell back to the pavilion. Pat Cummins came out to bat at this stage. From the onset, Cummins looked to attack even the best of the bowlers of the Mumbai team. With 5 overs left in the innings, Kolkata needed 35 runs to win. Cummins decided that he will not take the match to the end. Cummins smashed 35 runs in the 16th over of the innings against Daniel Sams and the match was over even before the fans could blink an eye. Cummins finished with 56 runs from 15 deliveries, completing his half-century in just 14 deliveries. This is now the joint-fastest half-century in the history of the tournament.
The awe-striking knock from Cummins stunned the Mumbai captain, Rohit Sharma. When asked about the match-winning effort by the Australian all-rounder, Rohit said- “Never expected him (Cummins) to come out and play like that! Lot of credit to him for the way he played,â€- during a post-match conversation with the commentators.
“We had the game until the 15th over, but the way Cummins played… We thought we could have them. But this will be hard to digest- the way it turned out to be in the last few overs. There is a lot of hard work we need to put in. I don’t want to be in this position every timeâ€- he further added.
Mumbai will be facing Bangalore in their next match on the 9th of April.
