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Cricket World Player of the Week - Venkatesh Iyer

©IANS

Venkatesh Iyer became the first KKR batter to score a hundred in the IPL since Brendon McCullum achieved the feat in the first-ever IPL match in 2008.

The Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 22nd match of the Indian Premier League 2023 played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 16 was a game of many firsts.

As Arjun Tendulkar made his debut for Mumbai, Sachin and Arjun Tendulkar became the first father-son pair to play in the IPL. Marco Jansen and Duan Jansen also became the first twins to play in the IPL after Duan made his debut for the Mumbai Indians on Sunday.

KKR batter Venkatesh Iyer brought up a magnificent 51-ball 104 to become the first KKR batter to score a hundred in the IPL since Brendon McCullum’s 158 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first-ever IPL match. Surprisingly, McCullum’s explosive ton came almost 15 years ago.

Iyer's knock stood out in the fact that no other KKR batter had found the boundary at the 10-over mark. The two-paced nature of the red soil wicket at the Wankhede meant that only Andre Russell could play with any fluency on the surface apart from Iyer among the KKR batters.

Unfortunately for Iyer, his knock went in vain as KKR's 185/6 was chased down comfortably by Mumbai within just 17.4 overs, courtesy of some explosive batting from Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav.

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— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 18, 2023