Manish Pandey had been waiting for an opportunity to make an impact for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024 and he finally got it on Friday.
A top-order collapse after KKR was asked to bat meant he went out as an impact player and scored a 31-ball 42 - it may not mean much in an IPL as high-scoring as this one, but it played a huge role on the night as KKR beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by 24 runs at the Wankhede.
Pandey came in at No 7 with KKR reeling at 57 for 5 and his 83-run stand with Venkatesh Iyer, who top-scored with a 52-ball 70, took KKR to 169 before they bowled out MI for 145.
Venkatesh, the player of the match, said it was important for him and Pandey to rebuild, even if the scores weren't high, to save the likes of Andre Russell for the death:
"This is the fourth or fifth time where Manish has padded up, but this time he eventually got to bat. Yeah, that's the plan obviously. With the impact-player rule, if you see a collapse, you can get a batter in, and he can add to the score."
It was Venkatesh's second half-century of IPL 2024 and his best by far, surpassing the 30-ball 50 he scored in KKR's win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) earlier in the tournament.