IPL 2025: Ashwani’s 4-24, Rickelton’s maiden fifty help MI thrash KKR by 8-wickets
Mumbai, March 31 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Ryan Rickelton struck a fine unbeaten half-century after young debutant pacer Ashwani Kumar had destroyed Kolkata Knight Riders with a 4-24 haul as Mumbai Indians bagged their first points of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with an eight-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium here on Monday.
Rickelton, who had struck a record double hundred for South Africa recently, capitalised on the conditions that had eased out to storm to his maiden IPL 50 off 33 balls as Mumbai Indians reached 121/2 in 12.5 overs after bundling KKR for 116 in 16.2 overs.
Rickelton scored 62 not out off 41 balls, hitting four boundaries and five maximums, raising 46 runs for the opening wicket with Rohit Sharma (13) and 45 with Will Jacks (16) for the second wicket. Suryakumar Yadav, who sealed victory with a six, remained unbeaten on 27 off nine balls as Mumbai romped to victory with a lot to spare.
The day belonged to Ashwani Kumar, who claimed the best figures by an Indian bowler on IPL debut to set up Mumbai Indians for victory.
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.
Ashwani (4-24) bowled to a plan, banging it short to extract extra bounce from the lively wicket and 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 in IPL.
The 23-year-old left-arm seamer from Jhanjeri, a town near Mohali in Punjab, claimed Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket off his first ball and then added the scalps of Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey and Andre Russell as he bagged his first-ever four-wicket haul.
Deepak Chahar claimed 2-19 while Trent Boult, Hardik Pandya, Vignesh Puthur and Mitchell Santner took a wicket each as the defending champions failed to last their quota of 20 overs and barely crawled into three figures.
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 while Quinton de Kock (1) fell to Chahar off the first ball of the second over.
Ashwani was into the act soon after, bagging a wicket in the ball of his debut match as Ajinkya Rahane (11), 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, skied one to Tilak Varma at deep backward point. KKR were down to 25/3.
It became worse soon as Venkatesh Iyer edged behind to Ryan Rickelton one from Chahar, and Hardik Pandya sent back Angkrish Raghuvanshi after a 16-ball stay that fetched him 26 runs.
Rinku, the dasher from Uttar Pradesh, failed to capitalise on the chance of building an innings as he fell for 17, going after a delivery banged short, becoming Ashwani’s second wicket — the left-arm seamer having the last laugh after being hit for a boundary.
Ashwani had his third wicket soon as Impact Substitute Manish Pandey (19), who hammered Puthur for a six, played on to his stumps after hitting a boundary off the left-arm pacer.
The 23-year-old from Punjab, who also dropped two catches, completed his four-fer by setting up Andre Russell with two short ones, followed by a fullish delivery, the West Indian falling prey to the superb tactics by the young bowler, and KKR slumped to 88/8. Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana struck a couple of sixes as the defending champions reached 100 before getting all out for 116, which the Mumbai Indians chased easily.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Angkrish Raghuvanshi 26, Ramandeep Singh 22; Ashwani Kumar 4-24, Deepak Chahar 2-19) lost to Mumbai Indians 121/2 in 12,5 overs (Ryan Rickelton 62 not out, Suryakumar Yadav 27 not out; Andre Russell 2-35).
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