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Kolkata Knight Riders batter Venkatesh Iyer's record-breaking knock of 104 (51) was insufficient as Mumbai Indians managed to clinch their second victory of the Indian Premier League by 5 wickets on Sunday at Wankhede Stadium.
As KKR struggled to put up a partnership and score runs against MI bowlers, Iyer rose to the occasion and performed game-changing innings with his bat. Even though he wasn't pleased with the final result, Iyer still played a knock which will go down in KKR's history. With this knock, he repaid the faith which was invested in him by the KKR management. "Would have been happier if we would have finished on the winning note but nonetheless, pleased with my effort. That's the role given to me by the management and it's my job to repay them. Obviously, it was a very beautiful wicket to bat on. Once you score those 30-40 runs, it gets easy to score. Really happy to get a hundred," said Venkatesh Iyer after the match. Iyer didn't rush into scoring runs early on in his innings. He took his time, understood the pitch and capitalized on every opportunity that came his way. This unsettled MI bowlers and allowed him to score runs according to his own will. "Their new ball bowlers are both swing bowlers and once you allow them to settle down, it gets difficult. So I just didn't want to let them settle. Once the swing goes away, it gets easier to play them. Once you're out there doing something for the team, you forget all the pain. The wicket was really nice and I was enjoying myself out there. In hindsight, I think we did score 15-20 runs less, and the way MI were going, they could have scored it in another over but yeah, we were a little short." KKR will try to bounce back against Delhi Capitals on Thursday at Arun Jaitley Stadium. (ANI)
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