The MI team is now associated with fantastic debut performances, and on Monday night in Wankhede, it was Ashwani Kumar’s turn. He claimed 4 wickets for 24 runs in three overs, becoming the first Indian pace bowler in 18 IPL seasons to debut with a four-wicket haul. Mumbai cruised past the low target after restricting KKR to 116 runs. Ryan Rickelton scored 35 runs, and Suryakumar Yadav scored the runs needed to win. The match was comfortably won with 43 balls remaining.

Kolkata were left with no chance of getting back into the game after the furious bowling assault by the Mumbai Indians with the fast bowlers leading the charge. Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Ashwani, and Hardik Pandya all contributed to the eight wickets that were taken, preventing KKR from building on their total.

Though Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Ajinkya Rahane scored 26 runs and 11 runs respectively with some nice strokes, it was not enough as Rahane eventually got out to an Ashwani delivery.

As KKR struggled and their batters were in a dire state, they made an strategic move by bringing in impact substitute Manish Pandey for Raghuvanshi. Among all the batters, only five managed to score double digits and the highest being 26. Another partnership was forged between Rinku Singh 17 (14) and Pandey 19 (14) but they could only make 29 runs off 21 balls. Unfortunately, Pandey lost his wicket to Ashwani as well. However, the highlight of the match for the debutant was watching a swing and a miss attempt from Andre Russel absolutely demolish his stumps.

A stunning opening partnership between Rickleton and Rohit Sharma 13(12) managed to fall into place and build the wonderful 46 run chase that brought hope to Mumbai. Unfortunately for Rohit, Russel’s delivery was too much and he met his mid-off with a cross-batted slug that did nothing but put an end to all of his hopes.

Rickleton, the South African batter, was in top form and meted out a half-century even before Suryakumar came in to finish swiftly with some classic leg-side sixes. Suryakumar, while remaining unbeaten at 27 off just 9 balls, scored the winning basket by making a scoop shot over the fine leg, nudging Mumbai up to the sixth position in tabel after their first season win. Regarding KKR, after the multitude of discussions concerning the pitches, they now sit at the lowest place of the rank.

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