Mumbai: In the first 11 matches of IPL 2025, 9 teams had opened their account. Only Mumbai Indians did not win. Now Hardik Pandya's team has also got the first win of the season. After losing to CSK and Gujarat, Mumbai won an easy 8-wicket win over KKR. Mumbai Indians wrapped up KKR's innings for 116 runs in the 17th over at the Wankhede Stadium. Mumbai won the match by losing two wickets in the 13th over. Suryakumar Yadav finished the match with a six.
Ashwani Kumar was the hero of the victory
Left-arm fast bowler Ashwani Kumar took four wickets for 24 runs on his IPL debut. 23-year-old Ashwani dismissed KKR's top batsmen like Ajinkya Rahane (11), Rinku Singh (17), Manish Pandey (17) and Andre Russell (5). Deepak Chahar took two wickets for 19 runs while Trent Boult got one wicket. Ashwani became the first Indian to take four wickets in the first match in IPL.
Openers were dismissed in 7 balls
KKR had a very bad start. On the bouncy and swinging pitch of Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai's new ball bowlers took full advantage of the mistakes of KKR batsmen. Trent Boult dismissed Narayan in the very first over with a full length ball. In the next over, Chahar got De Kock caught by Ashwani at mid-off. Rahane tried to reduce the pressure by hitting a six and a four but Ashwin sent him to the pavilion on the very first ball. This fast bowler from Punjab tempted the KKR captain to play forward and he played a shot in the air and got caught at deep backward point.
Angakrish Raghuvanshi (26) hit fours on both sides of the wicket and also hit a six to Ashwin. Raghuvanshi also returned to the pavilion after playing an irresponsible shot. Naman Dheer caught him at deep square leg on Hardik Pandya's ball. Pandey, who came as an impact sub, was dismissed by Ashwin in the 11th over. Two balls later, he got Rinku caught by Dheer and dashed KKR's plans of reaching a strong score.
Mumbai Indians did not face any problem. In reply, South African Rickelton, who joined Mumbai this season, scored an unbeaten 62 runs with the help of four fours and five sixes in 41 balls and took the host team to 121 runs in 12.5 overs for the loss of two wickets. This is Mumbai's first win this season as it had to face defeat in the first two matches. Suryakumar Yadav remained unbeaten by scoring 27 runs with three fours and two sixes in nine balls. Rohit Sharma scored 13 and Will Jacks scored 16 runs before falling to Andre Russell.
