IPL 2022 | I couldn't believe the way he was hitting the ball - Shreyas Iyer on Pat Cummins

Kolkata Knight Riders registered a convincing victory over Mumbai Indians on the back of Pat Cummins' swashbuckling fifty. After putting up 161 in 20 overs, Mumbai bowlers started quite well, but Cummins had some other plans in mind as his 15-ball 56 with four fours and six sixes helped KKR win the game with four overs in hand.

After the win, Pat Cummins, who won the Player of the Match, said: "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. I wasn't trying to overthink it. Very satisfying to do it on my first game this season. I 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 and quite relaxed with the boys."

Meanwhile, the captain, Shreyas Iyer, was in awe of Cummins' performance. He also admitted that while practising, the pacer was not doing well with the bat in the net, but then he did exceptionally well for the team and snatched a victory.

He said, "Extraordinary! I couldn't believe how 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 in to 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 can hit the ball long. In the powerplay in both innings, the pitch was quite the same. After the powerplay, it got a lot easier, I guess."

On the other hand, another half-Centurion, Venkatesh Iyer, was elated to see Cummins' masterclass. He applauded him as the pitch was difficult to bat on, but Pat Cummins made it look easy.

Venkatesh Iyer said: "For everyone other than Pat, it (pitch) looked tricky. I was really happy that I was there till the end; Gotta give it to Pat; unbelievable hitting on display on a pitch that was 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 the end and play that anchor role so that the rest of the batsmen can play freely and attack from ball one."

However, it was a shock for the Mumbai Indians team and team captain Rohit Sharma. He admitted that no one expected Pat Cummins would play like this. He also stated that they failed to execute their plans well and lauded the pacer's stunning batting.

Rohit Sharma said: "Never expected him to come and play like that [on Cummins]. 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, getting 70+ was a great effort from the batting unit. We did not bowl according to the plan. 

We had the game until the 15th over, but Cummins was brilliant. We always have the upper hand whenever you have runs on the board. 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."