Mumbai Indians made it look easy as they secured an eight-wicket victory against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2025 match at Wankhede Stadium on Monday.

Debutant Ashwani Kumar stole the spotlight for Mumbai, claiming four wickets and marking his entry into the tournament with a bang. The fiery performance of the left-arm pacer from Punjab reduced the defending champions to a modest score of 116.

MI were winless after the first two rounds, but their pacers had been right on the money after skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss. Spinner Vignesh Puthur, who was left out of MI's second match against the Gujarat Titans, earned his first start. But the conditions favoured seam bowling and Trent Boult made an instant impact with the fourth ball of the innings, castling Sunil Narine.

Deepak Chahar removed former MI star Quinton de Kock before Ashwani entered the act and dismissed KKR skipper and Mumbai's beloved son Ajinkya Rahane (11). He ripped through the KKR middle order, removing Rinku Singh (17), impact sub Manish Pandey (19) and Andre Russell (5), the last two bowled.

Vignesh, who bowled an expensive first over (14) returned to keep it tidy in his next (7), and more importantly, got the wicket of Harshit Rana, to extend his IPL tally to four.

All of the KKR batsmen were back in the dugout in just 16.2 overs, posting an easy target for the famed Mumbai batters. 

Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton started the chase without any pressure. Rickelton fired Mumbai's innings while Rohit struggled to maintain his balance. The Indian captain's wicket was claimed by Andre Russell after he made just 13 runs. 

Rahane brought out a masterclass effort to dismiss Will Jacks in the 10th over. An extra bounce from Russell saw Jacks attempting to place the ball through off side. But instead, it edged to short cover, where Rahane made a brilliant diving effort to claim the catch. 

Rickelton and Suryakumar Yadav sailed the Mumbai innings to a victory without much damage. A last-ball six from Suryakumar sealed the game in Mumbai's favour. Rickelton made an unbeaten 62 runs while Suryakumar quick-fired a nine-ball 27. 

Brief scores: KKR 116 in 16.2 overs (Ashwani Kumar 4/24, Deepak Chahar 2/19, Vignesh Puthur 1/21) lost by eight wickets to MI 121/2 IN 12.5 overs (Ryan Rickelton 62 not out, Suryakumar Yadav 27 not out; Andre Russell 2/35)

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