Mumbai, March 29 (IANS) Skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored half-centuries as Kolkata Knight Riders reached 220/4 in 20 overs in a start-stop-start innings against Mumbai Indians in their opening match of the Indian Premier League 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Asked to bat first, Rahane provided the early impetus to the KKR innings with a 40-ball 67, while Raghuvanshi provided the late finish with a 28-ball 51 after the Mumbai Indians had fought back with a three-wicket burst by Shardul Thakur (3-39).
Raghuvanshi and Rinku Singh (33* off 21 balls) shared a 60-run partnership for the fourth wicket that helped KKR recover from the mid-innings slump to reach what is being considered a par score.
After a quiet first two overs, the KKR opening pair of Rahane, on his home ground, and Finn Allen exploded into action as they hammered 54 runs in 18 balls as the team raced to their first fifty against the Mumbai Indians, reaching the mark in 23 balls.
The carnage started when Hardik Pandya introduced Afghan mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar, and the bowler was smashed for 17 runs in his first over, with Allen walloping him for two sixes and a four.
Things got worse in the next over as Rahane hammered back-to-back sixes off Pandya in the first two balls of the fourth over, while Allen struck the Mumbai Indian captain boundaries off successive balls to end it as KKR blasted 26 runs from the over, racing to fifty in just 23 balls.
Shardul Thakur, making his debut for MI in his home town, made the breakthrough in the sixth over, getting Allen (37, 17b, 6×4, 2×6) caught at long-on with a slower delivery as KKR ended the Power-play at 78/1. Allen and Rahane raised 69 runs for the opening wicket, laying the foundation for a big total.
Cameron Green’s first innings as the costliest overseas player ever in IPL history lasted only 10 balls and fetched 18 runs as Thakur took the pace off a delivery that bounced a bit, and Green’s slap-shot went down the throat of Sherfane Rutherford at deep cover. Rahane and Green added 40 runs for the second wicket.
Rahane continued the good work from the other end as he cruised to his fifty in 27 balls, hitting three boundaries and four maximums. The fall of two wickets slowed down Rahane as he tried to build another partnership with Angkrish Raghuvanshi, but that did not materialise as the skipper was next to fall.
Thakur picked up his third wicket of the night as Rahane went inside-out on a cross-seam full delivery outside off and toe-ended it to Pandya at cover, back-tracking to take a simple catch.
KKR lost momentum after that, but Raghuvanshi pulled them back again by hitting Ghazanfar for a four, dropped by Rohit Sharma near the long-on boundary rope, and six straight down in the next ball to add more insult to injury. He struck Thakur for a six in the 17th over before Rinku Singh struck a four three balls later as they raised 50 runs for the fourth wicket partnership.
Raghuvanshi reached his fifty off 28 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes before slicing Pandya in the air to Tilak Varma as KKR crossed the 200-run mark.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 220/4 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 67, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 51, Finn Allen 37, Rinku Singh 33 not out; Shardul Thakur 3-39) against Mumbai Indians.
–IANS
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