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Ashwani Kumar's great first game helps MI beat KKR convincingly
IPL 2025: Ashwani Kumar's great first game helps MI beat KKR convincingly
Ashwani Kumar picked four wickets on his maiden IPL appearance against KKR.
Hardik Pandya might have briefly forgotten the name of his debut player at the toss, but 23-year-old Ashwani Kumar made sure people would remember him. The left-arm bowler from Punjab had a stunning performance, taking 4 wickets for 24 runs and helping the Mumbai Indians dismiss the Kolkata Knight Riders for just 116 runs. The Mumbai team easily chased down that target, thanks to a solid half-century from Ryan Rickelton, marking their first win of IPL 2025.
Trent Boult set the stage early by taking his 30th IPL first-over wicket, knocking over Sunil Narine's stumps with a swinging full delivery. MI's strong performance continued as Deepak Chahar took two wickets, and debutant Ashwani made a big impression by getting KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane out on his very first ball. This collapse left KKR struggling with the lowest PowerPlay score of the season.
Things got worse for KKR as Hardik Pandya dismissed the dangerous Angkrish Raghuvanshi (26 off 16) with a short ball caught by a fielder in the deep. Needing to strengthen their batting, KKR brought in Manish Pandey as an impact substitute, but it didn’t help much. Ashwani shined during this time, skillfully setting up and getting key players out. He had Rinku Singh caught at deep cover and then fooled Manish Pandey and Andre Russell with short balls followed by well-placed length deliveries that hit the stumps. His fantastic spell left KKR in a tough spot.
Ramandeep Singh made a quick comeback with two sixes, but Mitchell Santner ended the innings with 22 balls remaining, highlighting a strong bowling performance by MI.
KKR's opening bowlers, Spencer Johnson and Harshit Rana, swung the ball well and often beat the bat, but they couldn’t take an early wicket. Ryan Rickelton finally got things moving, hitting a six and a four off Johnson, and then did even better against Rana, launching another six and two boundaries in the next over. The only issue for MI was their former captain Rohit Sharma, who couldn't find his rhythm and was out after a good short ball from Andre Russell.
Rickelton was determined not to extend the chase. He hit a big slog-sweep six off Narine in the seventh over and followed it up with two more sixes in the 10th, reaching his first IPL half-century in just 33 balls. Russell picked up another wicket by dismissing Will Jacks, but Suryakumar Yadav came in and quickly scored an unbeaten 27 off just nine balls to finish the game with 7.1 overs to spare.
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