Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) witnessed a historic day in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Sunday, with Venkatesh Iyer scoring a century. It was the first time in about 15 years that a KKR player scored a century in the IPL, with Brendon McCullum being the last, doing so in the inaugural edition of the T20 league in the very first match. While predicting a KKR player to score a century understandably remains a tough ask, considering the 15-year-long drought, a fan had almost accurately envisioned what Sunday's match was to bring.
In a tweet that has gone viral on social media, a fan predicted with almost perfect accuracy that Venkatesh would score a century in 51 balls. Though the KKR all-rounder's ton came in 49 balls, he eventually made 104 runs off 51 balls.
Here's the tweet:
"Bold prediction for today's match. Venkatesh Iyer will score his first ever t20 century in just 51 balls," the fan said.
Speaking of his performance after the match, Iyer said: "Would have been happier if we would've finished on the winning side but happy with my performance. They've shown faith in me and it was a very beautiful wicket to bat on. Once you've scored those 30-40 runs, it's just about how you continue. Both of their new ball bowlers were swing bowlers and when you allow swing bowlers to settle down, it can be a problem. So I used my feet, went deep in the crease. After the ball stops swinging it's about how you manoeuvre. I keep getting hit in every game here and there.
The thought about going out came but my coach and players urged me to keep going. I think we fell 15-20 runs short. But given how MI were going, they would've chased it down in the next over anyways. But their death bowling was very nice. If we look at their last three-four overs, they didn't give away too many runs. Credit to them."
Despite Iyer's ton, KKR couldn't secure a win, with Mumbai Indians taking two points fro the match, courtesy of their 5-wicket win with 2.2 overs to spare.