Cummins’ goes berserk with the bat; Umesh harries Rohit and Rahane goes for an unfortunate skier

Pat comes Cummins thudding response

Pity Tony Grieg isn’t alive to offer the most deserved BGM for Pat Cummins: that euphoric cry of whaddaaplayaaa! He leaked runs in the end in his first game this IPL and did he sit and sulk about it? Nah… he equalled KL Rahul’s fastest IPL fifty in 14 balls. They said Andre Russell can hit, Venkatesh Iyer will hit, Sam Billings can too. But it was the Australian captain Pat Cummins who blasted the living daylights out of Mumbai.

Player of the Match is none other than @patcummins30 for his stupendous knock of 56* off just 15 deliveries as @KKRiders win by 5 wickets.

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Unlike Russel who can get all stiff when the bouncer either angles away from him or rears at his body, Cummins does this fluid upper-body-twist to get into right positions even as he gets into his murderous swings. Tymal Mills tried bouncing him at his body, but with that twist and extraordinary hand-eye coordination, he biffed ’em away. When Jasprit Bumrah tried to catch him napping with fuller ones, he blasted it into the stands. And what can you say about poor Daniel Sams who bled 35 runs in the 15th over. He tried all lengths, and angles, and saw the ball being thrown back from stands. Cummins used the long handle, used the short-arm pull, deployed side-shuffles and kept smashing that white ball to oblivion. In the post-match interaction, Rohit Sharma was bemused, almost speechless – the only befitting reaction to that murder on the outskirts of Pune.

Sriram Veera

Mills & Boom comes Rohit’s genie

Tymal Mills was Rohit Sharma’s wicket-producing genie. Every time, he wishes for a wicket, he would just summon Mills for a spell, despatched to some far-flung outpost on the field, and he would grant the wish. He would just trundle in, then steam in and pinch the wicket from nowhere, usually off the first ball of a new spell. Wicket No 1: Ajinkya Rahane. Though far from fluent, he could anchor chases, especially a pursuit of 160. So Mills just bowls a staple short ball. Rahane pulls into the palms of the deep square-leg fielder.

Tymal Mills picks up his second wicket and this time it's the big one of Andre Russell.

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Wicket 2: Andre Russell. He seemed in a rampaging mood, but Mills slips in another short ball. Russell pulls too, but top-edges to point. Rahane was hurried; Russell was made to wait for the ball. Mills comes with the reputation of possessing a lethal army of short-pitched balls. The lifter, the rib-tickler, the slow bouncer, the fast bouncer, the bouncer that hustles past batsmen, the bouncer that stops at batsmen. Little wonder that he was Sharma’s wicket-producing genie.

Sandip G

Umesh renders Sharma No-hit

Umesh Yadav has turned on the Beast Mode this IPL. The best part of his fiery bowling is that he has managed to intimidate batsmen with classic outswing bowling at pace. The matchup vs Rohit Sharma was always going to be fascinating as he has taken out the India opener four times before this game. Rohit tried everything in this game to distract Umesh of his strength.

.@y_umesh at it again. Gets the wicket of #MI Skipper, Rohit Sharma.

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He charged down the track, he tried to hit on the up but Umesh stuck to his guns. And then he served a cracking short ball to the best puller in Indian team but he cleverly served it outside off stump. Rohit tried to fetch it from there and it was always going to be a losing cause as it kicked up at pace and unsurprisingly he top-edged a skier to the wicketkeeper. “White or red, the skill lies in swinging the ball, na? I can do it as I have done it. Of course, the lengths will vary and that is obvious and down to cricketing intelligence. I can prove myself as a wicket-taking bowler. I haven’t been used properly by selectors,” Umesh once told this newspaper and if he continues like this, the selectors can’t continue to ignore.

Sriram Veera

Brevisixes start raining down

In his first IPL outing, Dewald Brevis, dubbed the ‘Baby AB’, betrayed nerves, but he also dropped flashes of flair that could make him a future star. Though not quite a replica of Mr 360— he has yet to attain his sophistry and range and technique-wise he’s quite different too — he demonstrated that he has the strokes to grab the eyeballs and set the heart racing. One of them was a flicked six of Varun Chakravarthy. Unfazed by the latter’s mystery quotient, he nonchalantly wristed the first ball he faced over wide long-on.

Reading the variation, judging the trajectory, he pressed forward, picked the ball and just whirled his wrists to coax it over the ropes with an effortlessness that was more reminiscent of Herschelle Gibbs than de Villiers. A few balls before that, he slapped Umesh Yadav’s short ball through long-on too, after he had cuffed Rasikh Salam through long-on. Eventually, Chakravarthy avenged for the six, having him stumped four balls later. But there was an irrepressible spunk about the 19-year-old that makes him a talent to keep a close watch on.

Sandip G

One skier to ground them all

The ball skied between the wicketkeeper Sam Billings and the stumps. Fairly high, it hung up there long and everyone in the ground and beyond would have known that it was the ‘keeper’s catch. Except Ajinkya Rahane. It was Umesh Yadav’s last over and he had hurried the left-handed Tilak Verma with a sharp bouncer. The pull was late, the ball was too fast, and it flew right up. For some reason, Rahane chose to intervene from point. Billings ran towards the stumps, Rahane ran towards the stumps, Umesh jogged towards it and suddenly chaos erupted.

Billings stopped short. Rahane almost paused. Heart-rates must have escalated on the field, surely. Then Rahane lunged at the last minute to clang the catch. Billings shook his head, Rahane looked like a forlorn puppy and Umesh winced. And that cliche of rubbing salt to the wounds, Suryakumar Yadav, who had crossed over, slapped a four and upper cut a six off the next two balls.

Sriram Veera

Big Dong of the Surya six

Have you ever played that game Stick Cricket? Remember the sound a powerful hit used to make there? If you haven’t, just replay the six that Suryakumar Yadav hit off Sunil Narine. It was just the second six that Narine gave this IPL and what a cracking sound it made. Tonk doesn’t do justice or any of the Batman wham bham expressions. Stick cricket is the closest to it. Surya went down on his knee and disposed.

That's a FIFTY for @surya_14kumar 👌👌

Back in the side and instantly makes a mark 👏👏

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A stunning slog sweep, that sweet sound, and off the white ball flew over midwicket. Surya had walked into a mini-crisis and seized the game in his customary counter-attacking style. If he and Shreyas Iyer continue to have a good IPL with the bat, the pressure will escalate on Virat Kohli to turn on the runs tap to ward off any pressure on his spot in the Indian T20 team.

Sriram Veera

Yours disdainfully, Tilak Varma

Teenager Tilak Varma is busy shattering reputations. After he tore Trent Boult and Ravi Ashwin apart during his breakout knock (61 off 33 balls) the other night, he tucked into Pat Cummins and Varun Chakravarthy on Wednesday. He greeted Cummins with the most audacious of scoops. Varma shuffled across outside the off-stump, hunkered down and just when the ball reached him, twirled his bat, making contact just at the perfect moment, his body maintaining the leaning tower of Pisa pose all through the execution of that stroke.

The balance was astonishing— batsmen so easily tumble. As were his dexterous hands. Even Cummins stared admiringly at him; Shreyas Iyer blew his cheeks in exasperation. Varma was not finished slaying the strapping Australian captain. Three balls later, he cleared his front leg and just pile-drove him down the ground. The shot was so furious that it was like a slap on Cummins’s face. The latter never recovered from the bruising, even as Varma continued building his CV. Chakravarthy was disdained for a pair of fours and a six in an over, Andre Russell was muscled over mid-off for a four. More to come from the 19-year-old.

Sandip G

Iyer breaks the shackles

Off the 29th ball he faced in his start-stop knock, Venkatesh Iyer had his benediction. He bent on one knee and heaved Murugan Ashwin over deep square leg. He could finally smile, and smile heartily he did. He watched the ball until it sunk into the stands and looked skywards, breathing deeply. For until that moment, it has been a struggle for Iyer to replicate that stroke-full touch of last edition. This season, he has been scratchy and streaky, loose and petulant, unable to pierce the gaps and often crease-stuck. Static feet have resulted in him throwing his hands at almost every delivery. Bowlers have been quick to pounce on another flaw of his—his front-foot does not stride out much, and he ends up stabbing at good-length balls veering away from his body. Resultantly, his first two outings yielded only 13 runs. But sometimes, all it takes is one shot to hit the straps. That six seemed that one shot.

Sandip G