07 April,2022 07:12 AM IST | Pune | Shreeram Gokhale
Mumbai Indians’ Suryakumar Yadav guides one during his knock of 52 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Pune’s MCA Stadium. Pic/PTI
When it came to retaining only four players ahead of the IPL 2022 auction, it was no wonder that Suryakumar Yadav was on the Mumbai Indians' retention list.
The right-handed batsman showed exactly what the Mumbai Indians were missing in their first two games, as his fiery half-century helped the Rohit Sharma-led unit to 161 for 4 after being put in to bat by Kolkata Knight Riders at the MCA Stadium here on Wednesday.
At the time of going to press, KKR were 35-2 after six overs.
Yadav's 36-ball 52 (5x4, 2x6), and his 83-run stand off 49 balls with Tilak Varma gave the Mumbai Indians total some respectability. Kieron Pollard's five-ball 22-run took the score past the 160-run mark, a total that looked improbable till about 15 overs. Pollard smacked Pat Cummins for three sixes, two of those via top edges to third man. He hit a four too.
For three quarters of the innings though, Mumbai Indians batsmen struggled to find any rhythm on a pitch that assisted the pace bowlers early on, and seemed to slow down a bit as the game progressed.
Umesh Yadav was superb with the new ball, beating the outside edge on a number of occasions. He also got the wicket of Rohit in his three-over spell, as Mumbai Indians managed 36 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay. The lack of pace from Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy strangled Mumbai Indians.
Yadav and Varma came together with MI struggling at 55 for 3 after 11 overs. Varma hardly had time to settle and pulled Umesh off the sixth ball he faced. His top edge should have been comfortably caught, but a misunderstanding between wicketkeeper Sam Billings and Ajinkya Rahane, who ran in from point, meant the chance was grassed. It proved costly for KKR, as Varma, on three at that moment, finished unbeaten on 38, including three fours and two sixes.
Despite missing the first two games to completely recover from injury, Yadav hardly looked like being out of touch. He timed the ball well. MI's acceleration began in the final five overs, scoring 76 runs. Varma and Yadav smacked Cummins for 13 runs, followed by a 17-run Chakravarthy over.
