Picture Credit: X/IPL
During the 51st match of the IPL 2024, Venkatesh Iyer, the Kolkata Knight Riders batter, was at the striker’s end when his teammate Andre Russell got run out. Although Iyer and Russell weren’t too pleased about the moment in the heat of the battle, they saw the funny side of it while chatting alongside Venky Mysore and Suryakumar Yadav.
In the 17th over of the Kolkata Knight Riders innings, Venkatesh Iyer played a reverse swipe towards the short third man region off the bowling of Hardik Pandya. His non-striking partner Andre Russell was off the blocks to complete the single, but Venkatesh Iyer wasn’t aware of the call, which led to both the batters finding themselves at the striker’s end.
Iyer, who was in no position to take the run, sent Andre Russell, but before he could make the crease, the Mumbai Indians captain, Hardik Pandya, completed the run out at the striker’s end. Although this moment cost KKR a few valuable runs in the latter half of the innings, they still posted 169 runs on the board before bundling out MI for 145 in the run chase.
After the completion of the match, Suryakumar Yadav, the former KKR player, was involved in a chat with Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, and the Managing Director, Venky Mysore. Kolkata Knight Riders posted a clip on their official X account where Venkatesh Iyer can be seen talking about Andre Russell’s run out moment, “I open my eyes and I see him here (both players at the striker’s end).”
Moments later, when Suryakumar Yadav spoke about how it’s not easy to turn and run quickly, Venkatesh Iyer pointed out the running of Andre Russell to him and said, “Aise bhaagta nahi hai. Pata nahi kyun aaj tez bhaag raha tha (Usually he doesn’t run like this. I don’t know why he was running fast today).”
Venkatesh Iyer (70 off 52) and Suryakumar Yadav (56 off 35) were the top scorers for KKR and MI respectively in the match in which both teams got bundled out inside the allotted 20 overs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
