Debutant Kumar, Rickelton lead MI to first IPL win of the season

A sparkling debut performance by medium pacer Ashwani Kumar helped IPL powerhouses Mumbai Indians register their first win of the season on Monday, downing Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets.

Kumar’s 4-24 — and an overall disciplined bowling performance — restricted champions Kolkata to a modest total of 116, which Mumbai chased down with more than seven overs to spare.

“There was some pressure in the beginning but the team atmosphere put me at ease,” Kumar told broadcasters during the innings break.

South Africa’s wicket-keeper-batsman Ryan Rickelton, who had struck a record double hundred for South Africa recently, spearheaded Mumbai’s chase, scoring a busy 62 in 41 balls, an innings laced with five 6s.

Rickelton raised 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.

Kumar, a 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.

Kumar was into the act soon after, bagging a wicket in the ball of his debut match as Rahane (11), who dispatched 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 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 Kumar’s second wicket — the left-arm seamer having the last laugh after being hit for a boundary.

Kumar 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.

He completed his four-fer by setting up 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.

Meanwhile, skipper Pandya was very satisfied with his team claiming their first points after starting with two defeats.

“Very satisfying. To win, especially at home and the way we did it as a group — everyone chipped in, cannot be happier,” said Pandya in the post-match presentation.

Pandya also explained the rationale behind picking an unknown, inexperienced bowler for their first home game of the season and gave credit to the talent scouts of the franchise who unearthed gems Kumar and Puthur.

“It is always a challenge to pick one guy here or there. Our team is sorted with the players we are backing and the players we have. We thought Kumar could come in (on this pitch) and bowl the way he bowled. It is all scouts - they picked him. They have gone to all the places and picked these young kids,” said Pandya.

He said they realised Kumar’s potential after he did well in an intra-team practice match.

“We played a practice game, he had that zip, that late swing, something off the wicket, a different action, and he was a leftie.”

Agencies

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).