IPL 2023: Venkatesh Iyer’s century goes in vain as MI register comprehensive victory over KKR

Mumbai Indians defeated KKR in the 22nd match of IPL 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. After registering their first win over DC, Mumbai got the momentum they needed to go ahead in this season. Chasing 185 Ishan Kishan and  Rohit Sharma gave the best powerplay performance of the season so far as left hander opener scored an attacking half century off 21 balls. After Ishan Kishan it was Suryakumar Yadav who finally got back his touch and looked calm and confident on the crease with his 43 off 25 balls. And rest was done by Tilak Verma and Tim David as MI defeated the 2 times champion by 5 wickets. It was an overall good day for Mumbai Indians fans and Sachin Tendulkar as his son Arjun Tendulkar made his debut in the IPL after 2 years of being bought by the Mumbai franchise. Arjun bowled 2 overs and conceded 17 runs of it. 

Batting first, KKR were off to a decent start as the trouble of opening pair continued for Nitish Rana’s team. Both opening batters departed early, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 8 off 12 balls and Narayan Jagadeesan could not even open his innings. Venkatesh Iyer batted beautifully and completed his century off 49 balls and scored the first hundred for KKR since McCullum in the first IPL game in 2008. No other batters could do any harm to Mumbai bowlers. Piyush Chawala's (19 for 1) 4 over spell in middle overs slowed down the run rate of Kolkata which later restricted the Riders at 185 runs. Venkatesh Iyer became the player of the match for his magnificent 104 off 51. 

Mumbai is at the 8th place of the points table with 3 other teams ahead of them with a little higher run rate. From 5th to 9th every team has 4 points. 1 win from here can make a huge difference in the IPL 2023 points table. KKR remained at the 5th place but now have 3 losses. If CSK, RCB, MI or SRH win their next match Kolkata will be dragged down the table.