Match 12 of the ongoing IPL 2025 (Indian Premier League) witnessed Mumbai Indians (MI) host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, on Monday, March 31. After winning the toss, skipper Hardik Pandya invited the visitors to bat first.
At the toss, Pandya said that the wicket looked good and in the evening it may get tougher to bowl for the opposition. Hence chasing seemed quite sensible to the MI captain. On the other hand, Rahane said that he was unsure of the pitch and hence losing the toss could be a good thing given that if KKR succeed in putting up a good total, they may be able to use the sea breeze, which assists the pacers to move the ball and make it tough for the batters chasing the target. But it turned out to be a bad day for Kolkata.
Talking Points
1. Mumbai dismantle Kolkata for a paltry total
The decision proved right for Mumbai as the KKR batters struggled, suffering early jolts, including the dismissals of key players like Quinton de Kock and Venkatesh Iyer. As a result, they were left reeling at 59/5 within eight overs. Towards the end of the innings, Manish Pandey and Rinku Singh tried their best to put some runs on the board. However, KKR was eventually bowled out for a meagre 116 runs.
2. Debutant Ashwani Kumar’s dream IPL debut for MI
The star of the day was debutant left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar, who stole the show with a historic performance for Mumbai Indians. He was right on the money from the very first ball of his IPL career, ending up with a sensational four-wicket haul (4/24) against the Kolkata-based franchise. Quite incredibly, his maiden wicket was none other than opposition captain Ajinkya Rahane, whom he dismissed with his very first IPL delivery. Apart from Rahane, Ashwani also claimed the scalps of big names like Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, and Andre Russell.
3. Rickelton’s explosive knock, MI end losing streak in IPL 2025
The hosts came out all guns blazing in the run chase. While Rohit Sharma (13 off 12 balls) continued his poor form, his fellow opener Ryan Rickelton pummeled Kolkata Knight Riders with a blistering unbeaten 62 off 41 balls. Notably, his fiery knock included five sixes and four boundaries. All-rounder Andre Russell claimed both of MI’s wickets, but by the time Will Jacks was dismissed, the score was already close to 100. In the end, Rickelton and Suryakumar Yadav (27* off 9 balls) completed the formality, sealing a dominant victory for Mumbai Indians by eight wickets with 43 balls to spare. With this win, MI finally ended their losing streak in the ongoing IPL 2025 season.
Meanwhile, here’s what the captains and POTM (Player of the Match) had to say regarding how the match turned out on the Wankhede IPL opener:
Who Said What?
Hardik Pandya, MI (Winning captain) said,
I have told I am going to lead the side in the same manner. You need to be up with your game. You can’t take any game easily, there are 10 good teams playing. We need to focus on our plans and process. Today we were successful in doing so. Plan was to give Starc two overs at the start and two overs at the end, but he was in good rhythm. Hence, I gave him the third over and he was able to pick an important wicket. We have experienced players in the team, they give me suggestions. Sometimes I follow them. Enjoying playing with these players. We are playing at Kotla since many years, we’ll have similar plans. Need to assess the conditions after going there.
Ajinkya Rahane, KKR (Losing captain) said,
Collective batting failure. It was a good wicket bat on as I mentioned in the toss. 180-190 would have been good on this wicket. It has a very good bounce. Sometimes you have to use the pace and bounce. We got to learn really fast from this game. Couldn’t much with the ball. They tried their best. But not much runs on the board. We kept on losing wickets. Four wickets in the powerplay. It was difficult to consolidate and get that total on the board. You need that partnership going. You need one batsman to stay till the end.
Ashwani Kumar, Player of the Match said,
It has been a good day. With the ball, in the field and with the bat. It was a fantastic performance by us today. There isn’t ego in bowlers these days. As a bowler you got to think out of the box. You need to do things you wouldn’t normally do. It was nice to contribute in the win today, we move forward from here. Guys know what I am going to do, so you need to think out of the box. As an older player you need to find different ways to get batters out. Tried to bowl different balls today, was pretty effective I think. It’s a new set of players, they have been fantastic. You get to play with new guys, it’s a great group of players. It’s a pretty young group to be fair, looking forward to playing more with them.
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