Watch: Andre Russell Fumes After Horrible Run Out, Intense Debate On If It Was Venkatesh Iyer's Doing In IPL Game

Venkatesh Iyer was at the centre of action during Kolkata Knight Riders' IPL 2024 match against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday. He struck a fighting half-century as KKR notched 169 despite some of its batters falling for low scores. KKR were 57/5 soon after the Power-play. But Venkatesh Iyer played a brilliant, controlled knock to score 70 off 52 balls and raised an 83-run partnership with Manish Pandey (42).

But then, he was involved in a horrible mix-up too. It happenned on the final ball of the 17th over, with Andre Russell at the other end. Iyer reverse-sweeped against Hardik Pandya and the ball went to short third man. By then, Russell had already started running while Iyer was watching the ball after taking a few steps down the wicket. When he reaslised that Russell was approaching, Iyer sent him back but by then it was too late. Hardik Pandya collected the ball well and broke the stumps.

Wankhede will not see a Russell special tonight #TATAIPL #MIvKKR #IPLonJioCinema pic.twitter.com/QYmZPQqFym

Andre Russell could be seen fuming on his way back.

Andre Russell is very angry !!!#MIvsKKR pic.twitter.com/bhcnDXvTEh

The run out also sparked a debate online on whether Iyer should have sacrificed his wicket. KKR were 153-7 in 17 overs after that dismissal. They could not add many runs after that dismissal in the last three overs.

Andre Russell is very angry !!!#MIvsKKR pic.twitter.com/bhcnDXvTEh

Venkatesh Iyer played very well today and Russell's run out is Russell's fault, not Iyer's https://t.co/HmKrclPfOz

Venkatesh Iyer decided to get Russell run out just to give away 7 dots.
#MIvsKKR

Later, KKR's spin twins, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, then claimed identical hauls of 4-22 in their four overs each to reduce Mumbai Indians to 61/4.

Mumbai were soon down to 71/6 before Suryakumar Yadav launched a valiant rescue attempt, hauling them to 120 in the company of Tim David before Andre Russell (2-30) and Mitchell Starc shared five wickets between them to end Mumbai Indians' fightback.

Starc claimed three wickets in the 19th over, two of them off successive deliveries, as he finished with 4-33. Mumbai Indians were bowled out for 145, sealing a morale-boosting victory for KKR against a team that had won 23 out of 32 matches before this encounter.

With IANS inputs