Mumbai Indians registered their maiden win of IPL 2025 after beating defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. Sent into bat first, KKR looked a fish out of water in front of debutant Ashwani Kumar, whose 4/24 helped the five-time champions bundle out KKR for 116 runs in the 17th over.
In reply, Mumbai Indians rode on Ryan Rickelton’s maiden IPL fifty to romp home in the 13th over. With this win, Mumbai Indians jumped four places to be sixth in the IPL 2025 points table. KKR dropped down to the bottom of the table with just one win in three games.
Let’s take a look at what happened at the Wankhede stadium.
Ashwani Kumar shines on debut
Ashwani Kumar came out of syllabus for KKR batters. After Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar sent the KKR openers packing, the left-arm pacer from Punjab ran through the opposition middle order including the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane on his very first ball. He later dismissed Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey and Andre Russell to finish with 4/24 in three overs. In fact Ashwani Kumar became the first Indian to take a four-wicket haul on IPL debut.
KKR’s middle-order woes
It’s been three matches so far, KKR’s highly-expensive middle order, consisting Venkatesh Iyer ( ₹23.75 crore), Rinku Singh ( ₹13 crore) and Andre Russell ( ₹12 crore) has failed to deliver. The trio of Iyer, Rinku and Russell has so far scored a combined of 47 runs in two matches. They didn’t had to bat against Rajasthan Royals.
Consistent Angkrish Raghuvanshi
If someone is consistent in the KKR middle order, it has to be Angkrish Raghuvanshi. The Mumbai batter scored 30, 22 not out and 26 in three matches so far. Although he got the starts but failed to convert into big scores.
Rickelton’s maiden IPL fifty
Even through Rohit Sharma failed once again with the bat, Ryan Rickelton (62 not out off 41 balls, 4x4s, 5x6s) made his first impact on the IPL stage as Mumbai Indians went over the line with 7.1 overs to spare. The left-handed South African Rickelton survived initial challenges from KKR pacers to fight back with a flurry of boundaries for his maiden half-century in the competition and helping his side record their first win of the season.
Stay updated on all the action from the IPL 2025. Check the IPL 2025 Schedule, track the latest IPL 2025 Points Table, and follow the top performers with the Orange Cap and Purple Cap.
