First-ever IPL match, four wickets, Player of the Match award... It may sound clichéd, but it was indeed a dream debut for Mumbai Indians’ Ashwani Kumar.
For Kolkata Knight Riders? A nightmare.
Having lost their first two matches, MI had to do things differently. They handed an IPL debut to rookie Ashwani, a pacer from Jhanjeri near Chandigarh. Going into the game, the 23-year-old had featured in just four T20s, as many List A games and two first-class matches.
But Ashwani vindicated the team management’s faith in him with a superb spell of 4/24 in three overs. That was key to the Knight Riders getting bundled out for a paltry 116. Thereafter, it was a cakewalk, as MI slayed the Knights by eight wickets in Monday’s clash at the Wankhede.
Impact Player Rohit Sharma departed for not many once again, but Ryan Rickelton and India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav ensured to take MI home with as many as 43 balls remaining. As MI finally got off the mark in this edition, the Knights slipped to rock bottom because of a poor net run rate.
The Knight Riders’ innings folded up in just 16.2 overs, denying Ashwani an opportunity for a five-for on his maiden IPL appearance. That said, the left-arm quick’s figures were still super hit in the end as he became the first Indian ever to take four wickets on IPL debut.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Knights, on the other hand, flopped big time again this season with the bat. The Wankhede’s red-soil track offered just a bit of movement for the quicks, which proved to be good enough to bamboozle KKR’s batting group.
Dream spell
In just seven balls, the Knights had lost Sunil Narine (returning in place of Moeen Ali) to Trent Boult and his opening partner Quinton de Kock, who failed to clear mid-off off Deepak Chahar’s bowling. At 2/2 in the second over, after Mumbai won the toss and opted to bowl, the pressure was palpable on Knights skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi as they tried a counterpunch.
But just as the duo were looking to rebuild the innings, Ashwani struck, claiming Rahane as his first victim. Rahane slashed at a pitched-up delivery, only to find
Tilak Varma at deep third man, who held the ball in a second attempt.
Venkatesh Iyer and Raghuvanshi departed soon after, dismissed by Chahar and Hardik Pandya respectively, making it worse for the Knights. After that it was an Ashwani show.
His performance in last year’s Sher-E-Punjab T20 Trophy went a long way in fetching Ashwani an IPL berth at last year’s auction at ₹40 lakh. In this game, Ashwani just had to vary his pace and focus on the back-of-a-length stuff. With variation in pace, he felled Rinku Singh.
The Knight Riders had to bring in another batsman, Manish Pandey, as their Impact Player (in place of Raghuvanshi). But Ashwani shaped one into Pandey, who was cleaned up. In his next over, Ashwani took his fourth by knocking Russell over with another one which drifted in.
Santner support
New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner finished with just one wicket, that of Ramandeep Singh, but his accuracy and how he troubled Russell stood out.
Russell was all at sea before Santner’s craft, completely unable to read the left-armer. It was the confusion that Santner created in Russell’s mind which led to his undoing before Ashwani.