Left-arm pacer Kumar bags record figures of 4-24 as Mumbai Indians comfortably defeat Kolkata Knight Riders with eight wickets and 43 balls to spare for their first win of IPL-18
MI pacer Ashwani Kumar celebrates KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket at Wankhede yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble
After two away losses in seven days (March 23 to Chennai Super Kings and to Gujarat Titans on March 29), Mumbai Indians (MI) shrugged off their disappointing start in IPL-18 to notch up their first win in this year’s edition by blowing away defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets with 43 balls to spare at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday night.
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Rickelton shines with 62*
It took a splendid half-century by opener Ryan Rickelton to help MI go past KKR’s below-par score of 116 while former captain Rohit Sharma’s low scores continued, this time an inauspicious 13 following his zero and eight in the previous two games.
South African Rickelton, 28, who smashed four fours and five sixes in his 62 not out, found an able ally in Suryakumar Yadav (27 not out) as Mumbai opened their account in IPL-18.
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West Indian Andre Russell claimed the two MI wickets, while Varun Chakravarthy failed to get any. The one who did make an impression — albeit from the KKR
opposition — was MI’s left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar (4-24) — the best figures by an Indian on IPL debut.
By the end of six overs, KKR were struggling at 41-4. And after the completion of seven overs, half their side were in the dugout.
KKR, who were 69-5 at the half-way stage of their innings, were bowled out for just 116 in 16.2 overs.
Pacers Trent Boult (1-23), Deepak Chahar (2-19) and Ashwani of course didn’t allow the visitors to settle.
Left-arm pacer Boult landed an early blow on KKR when he clean bowled opener Sunil Narine (0) off an out-swinging fuller length delivery in the innings’ very first over. Boult’s new-ball partner Chahar sent back opener Quinton de Kock (1) through Ashwani at mid-off, to reduce the visitors to 2-2 in the second over. However, Mumbai-based Angkrish Raghuvanshi (26, 3x4, 1x6) started off well by hitting Chahar for successive boundaries. KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane looked to be in a counter-attacking mood when he hammered Boult’s second ball of his second over for a maximum over fine leg. But young Ashwani, 23, got the prized scalp of Rahane, caught by Tilak Varma at deep backward point.
Chahar makes it count
Chahar, who conceded 14 runs in his first over, made his presence felt to end the Powerplay by conceding only five runs in his second over and dismissed the visiting team’s vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer (3) through a catch by wicketkeeper Rickelton.
Ashwani, who has represented Punjab in two first-class games, disturbed KKR’s impact player Manish Pandey’s (19, 2x4, 1x6) furniture and then got rewarded for his disciplined bowling when he had the dangerous Andre Russell (5) back in the pavilion.
No. 9 batsman Ramandeep Singh’s 12-ball 22 helped the visitors cross the 100-run mark.
Brief scores
KKR 116 all out in 16.2 overs (A Raghuvanshi 26; A Kumar 4-24, D Chahar 2-19) lost to MI 121-2 in 12.5 overs (Ryan Rickelton 62*, S Yadav 27*; A Russell 2-35) by eight wickets
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