Mumbai, March 31 (IANS) Ashwani Kumar made a dream debut, claiming a four-fer in his first match as Mumbai Indians capitalised on the assistance offered by the Wankhede pitch as they bundled out defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders for 116 in Match 12 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 here on Monday.
The first match on their home ground seems to have rejuvenated Mumbai Indians, as Hardik Pandya’s side came up with a superb bowling effort, exploiting the early juice in the wicket after electing to field first.
Ashwani (4-24) reaped the rewards as he became the first Indian bowler to claim four wickets on IPL debut. His 4-24 is the best figures by an Indian bowler on debut.
The 23-year-old left-arm seamer from Jhanjeri, near Mohali in Punjab, bowled short of length and banged it a bit to extract extra bounce as he foxed the KKR batters. His dismissals of Manish Pandey and Andre Russell had the fans swooning in delight.
Earlier, Sunil Narine’s return to the playing XI was extremely short-lived as Trent Boult uprooted his middle-stump on the fourth ball of the match as the sizzling in-swinging yorker sneaked through the bat-pad gap to make 1/1.
Quinton de Kock (1) fell to Deepak Chahar off the first ball of the second over, trying to clear the 30-yard circle but failing to get enough elevation as Ashwani Kumar leapt into the air to complete a two-handed catch over his head.
Ashwani was into the act soon after, bagging a wicket in the ball of his debut match as Ajinkya Rahane, who despatched Chahar the boundary over the non-striker’s head and then pulled a short one from Boult over long-on for the first six of the match, skies one to Tilak Varma at deep backward point, trying to despatch to the boundary a fullish delivery pitched wide. Rahane went for 11 off seven balls and KKR slipped to 25/3 in the fourth over. Varma nearly dropped it before reacting quickly to pouch it on the second attempt.
It became worse soon as Venkatesh Iyer edged behind to Ryan Rickelton one from Chahar, and from 41/4 at the end of the power-play, half the KKR side was back in the dugout as Angkrish Raghuvanshi succumbed to Hardik Pandya after a 16-ball stay that fetched him 26 runs.
Pandya, who rotated his bowlers as per a plan, giving them short spells of 1-2 overs, brought himself on for a two-over spell and got immediate success. KKR were 45/5 at the end of the seventh over as Mumbai bowlers bowled shortish lengths and allowed the pitch to do the rest.
Rinku and Manish Pandey took them past the fifty-run mark, but it did not look like KKR’s day. Rinku, the dasher from Uttar Pradesh, failed to capitalise on the chance of building an innings as he fell for 17, as Ashwani Kumar got his second wicket. Rinku, who blasted Vignesh Puthur for a big six, smashed one from Ashwani to the fence, going down the track to slap a shortish delivery over extra cover. But the left-arm pacer had the last laugh as he had Rinku going after a delivery that was banged short and a bit wide, and hitting it straight to Naman Dhir at deep point.
Ashwani had his third wicket soon as Impact Substitute Manish Pandey played on to his stumps after hitting a boundary off the left-arm pacer. Pandey had hammered Puthur for a six and swatted a short one from Pandya to the mid-wicket boundary. He hit Ashwani for a four but was out on the next delivery, the Karnataka batter getting out for 19 off 14 balls.
Ashwani, who also dropped two catches, had his fourth wicket when Andre Russell fell to a fullish delivery after two short ones, the West Indian falling prey to the superb tactics by the young bowler, out for five as KKR slumped to 88/8 in the 13th over.
Vignesh Puthur got his first victim of the day when he had Harshit Rana trying to slog one pitched outside off, and the batter drags it into the air at deep mid-wicket, where Naman Dhir grabs a superb diving catch. Puthur is soon substituted out by Rohit Sharma, and KKR ended with 116 thanks to a couple of big hits by Ramandeep Singh (22).
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 116/10 in 16.2 overs (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 26, Ramandeep Singh 22; Ashwani Kumar 4-24, Deepak Chahar 2-19) v Mumbai Indians.
–IANS
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