Ashwani Kumar's four-for on IPL debut secures Mumbai victory

Mumbai Indians got on the board in IPL 2025 with a eight-wicket victory over defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders which took their record against those opponents at Wankhede stadium to 10-2. The win was set up by the most unlikely source. A fast bowler named Ashwani Kumar picked up the best figures by an Indian on IPL debut - 4 for 24 - to knock KKR over for 116 all out.

Ryan Rickelton made a rapid half-century in the chase, leading his team to victory in just 12.5 overs.

That was Ryan Rickelton speaking to Firdose Moonda during the SA20 tournament earlier this year, where he finished the fourth-highest run-scorer.

Now, in his third innings in the IPL, facing the mystery spin of Narine and Chakravarthy, he's brought up fifty.

Safe to say, it's not that flipping hard. He's totally taken down Narine.

Four straight plays and misses with Ryan Rickelton on strike. Just one run off the over

Rickelton on strike again. Edge for four. Edge for six. One ball beaten too. But 13 off the over.

Ashwani Kumar became the first Indian bowler, and sixth overall, to pick up four or more wickets on IPL debut. On the back of his performance Mumbai Indians wrapped up Kolkata Knight Riders for 116.

The 23-year-old left-arm seamer from Punjab tripled his career tally of wickets - from two to six - over the course of one evening. He dismissed the KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane with his first ball. He took down Rinku Singh and Andre Russell. This league does not present any higher quality of wickets.

The most impressive thing about Kumar was how hard he was to line up. He had an orthodox bowling action. His speeds were largely in the early to mid 130kph. Those are the kind of bowlers that get smashed around in the IPL. But try as they might, KKR were never able to do it. Kumar came to prominence because of his performances in the Sher-E-Punjab T20 trophy last year where he displayed an affinity for the death overs. He didn't really bowl in that phase of the innings against KKR but he did show why he could find success in high-pressure situations. It was his control of length.

Rinku tried to take him down, but one ball after coming down the track and hitting him for four, he was caught on the deep point boundary. Kumar pulled his length back to surprise the batter. Russell tried to take him down, but one ball after clearing his front leg and smacking him through the line, he was beaten by a bouncer and then knocked over by a 140kph good length delivery that surprised the batter again.

Mumbai are almost surely looking at their first win of IPL 2025. KKR, meanwhile, were left wondering what had gone wrong. They were put in to bat and they seemed very conscious of putting up a par-plus total, their batters going on the attack even though they lost Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine in the first two overs. Angkrish Raghuvanshi looked good for his 26 off 16 but he fell immediately after the powerplay. That left KKR five down and forced them to bring in Manish Pandey as an Impact Player, which meant they would be going into the bowling innings short of options. The move didn't work with Pandey falling for 19 off 14.

He's supposed to bowl mid 130kph. This one is 140kph. And it goes straight through Andrer Russell.

Four wickets on IPL debut, which happens to be just his third T20 game.

This is a special performance simply because medium-pace usually gets lined up in the IPL. But nobody has been able to do that to Kumar. Rinku tried. Kumar changed his length (went shorter) and got him out. Russell tried. Kumar changed his length (went fuller) and got him out.

MI sent out a player profile as soon as Kumar picked up a first-ball wicket. In it they said, he has a "really good and deceptive bouncer." They weren't kidding. Rinku fell to the bouncer. Russell got beat by the bouncer. He seems to be innately aware of when to vary his lengths and has been able to do so even when batters of the quality of Russell and Rinku were attacking him and putting him under pressure

Initially, Russell was gone. Second time he'd fallen this season. Both times to spin. Beautiful stuff from Mitchell Santner, giving the power hitter no pace to work with and then getting just enough turn to square him up and win an lbw shout.

But Santner is a tall man and Wankhede always has bounce. Replays indicate it would have gone over the stumps. Everything else was right with that ball though. In-between length. Loads of revolutions. And crucially, no pace.

Ashwani Kumar, please make sure at the end of the night, somewhere in between the celebrations, hunt down one of the photographers and have them send you pictures of your celebrations. That big beautiful smile on your face has to go up on the wall at your home.

From picking up a wicket first ball, to striking twice in an over on his return to the attack, this day keeps getting better

Rinku likes hitting pace. He's very good at it (SR 172 in the last two years). He sees a debutant fast bowler running at him and he runs at him in reply. First time, he wins the battle. Gets four. Second time, with the ball a little shorter and a little wider, making the left-hand batter reach a little further away from his body, Rinku ends up caught.

On the one hand, he was playing a match-up that was in his favour. But with only Russell and Ramandeep as recognised batters left and half the innings still left to play, could Rinku have held back?

If everything had gone to plan, KKR might have brought in Vaibhav Arora as their impact player for the chase. Now that they're five down in seven overs, they've gone to Manish Pandey. This game is playing pretty much the same way as the fixture from last year, when guess who came in as the Impact sub with KKR five down.

KKR usually bank on eight overs from Narine and Chakravarthy. Rana and Johnson can't afford a bad night today. And Russell, who is yet to bowl this season, may have to lace his bowling boots.

Even with wickets falling, KKR were desperate for runs in the powerplay. It is a sign that they know they need a par plus total at Wankhede stadium. They lost two wickets in the first two overs but had eight aggressive responses in the first four. Two per over with no sign of holding back.

Venky Iyer, who finished with 3 off 9, charged down the pitch at Ashwani Kumar and though he was nowhere near the pitch of the ball, he swung as hard as he could, which is probably why the catching opportunity evaded Mitchell Santner.

Iyer let go of a Chahar bouncer once but then practiced an upper cut. When he had a chance to play the upper cut, he went for it but only feathered a catch through to the keeper. Batting first on a chasing ground might be the hardest thing to do in the IPL because you're almost chasing ghosts.

And it happens again. Raghuvanshi, who has played some excellent shots for 26 off 15, goes for another but gets caught at deep midwicket.

He must already have been having a lot of fun sharing the same dressing room with Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard and Trent Boult. Imagine the spring in his step now that his first act in the IPL is dismissing an opposition captain

An into-the-pitch slower ball later in the over almost got rid of Venkatesh Iyer as well. KKR are not backing off from playing big shots in the powerplay despite the wickets they're losing.

Quinton de Kock is brilliant against balls at the body. Anything straight and the natural arc of his back lift, which comes from around gully, allows him to flick it away over square leg with the greatest ease. Not since Sanath Jayasuriya has anyone made that shot look so nonchalant.

Boult didn't care about any of that. The late swing away that he was getting made hitting across the line dangerous. Chahar decided not to veer into the batter's strength. He bowled wide (actually bowled a wide). De Kock isn't too bad at slapping balls over point, but here he was made to reach a little too far and the ball comes right off the bottom of the bat and goes straight to debutant Ashwani Kumar at mid-off.

But this is T20 cricket. And it is 2025. So loss of wickets don't always lead to periods of consolidation.

The reason those two bowlers have such good numbers is because they are capable of swinging the new ball both ways. That might not really matter much to at least one of KKR's openers, Sunil Narine has a fine record in the first six overs as well, with a strike rate of 166, the sixth best out of all batters with a minimum of 50 runs in this period over the last two years.

As it happens, Boult takes down Narine. It's his 20th wicket in the first over of an IPL game.

Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya won the toss at the team's first home game of IPL 2025 and chose to bowl. There were three changes to the XI that lost the last game to Gujarat Titans with Will Jacks coming back into the XI in place of Mujeeb Ur Rahman, left-arm wristspinner Vignesh Puthur taking over from Robin Minz and uncapped left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar swapping in for S Raju. Kumar, 23, has played four T20s for Punjab picking up two wickets at an economy rate of 8.50. He was part of an internship programme with Punjab Kings earlier. He can swing the ball into right-hand batters and has a yorker as well.

Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane had good news, confirming that Sunil Narine had recovered from the illness which kept him out of the last game to return to the XI. As a result, Moeen Ali missed out. Rahane, who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket, said he was "confused" by the pitch, since it had a little grass on it, and thought it was a good toss to lose.

Mumbai are still searching for their first win of IPL 2025.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy

KKR bench: Anrich Nortje, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Luvnith Sisodia

Mumbai Indians: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (capt), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Ashwani Kumar, Vignesh Puthur

MI bench: Rohit Sharma, Corbin Bosch, Raj Bawa, Robin Minz, Satyanarayana Raju

"Absolute belter," says former England captain Eoin Morgan about the pitch. "Absolutely rock-hard underneath, that means lovely pace and carry." One square boundary is shorter than the other as well.