IPL 2025: Ashwani Kumar starred on his debut with a four-wicket haul as the Mumbai Indians (MI) beat the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by eight wickets. The match took place on Monday, March 31, at the Wankhede Stadium. With the win, Mumbai have now jumped to sixth place in the standings.
IPL 2025: Opting to bowl first, MI bowlers were right on the money from the first ball, and reduced the visiting side to 2/2 inside the second over. Since then, debutant Ashwani, who ran down the KKR batting with four quick wickets, returning with figures of 4/24 from three overs.
IPL 2025: Although it looked difficult to cross the 100-run mark at one stage, Ramandeep Singh’s 12-ball while batting at No.9 enabled the Knight Riders to post 116 on the board.
IPL 2025: In the run chase, Ryan Rickelton got the team up and running with an excellent unbeaten half-century. Although Rohit Sharma and Will Jacks couldn’t leave a mark, Suryakumar Yadav (27* off 9) played a small cameo to help MI cross the line in just 12.5 overs.
IPL 2025: The 12th match of IPL 2025 saw a lot of records tumble during the night. On that note, let’s look at five milestones during Mumbai’s eight-wicket over the Knight Riders.
#1 Ashwani Kumar registers best bowling figures by an Indian in the IPL
The 23-year-old pacer from Mohali stole the show on his IPL debut for the Mumbai Indians against the Kolkata Knight Riders. He left a mark immediately by picking up a four-wicket haul.
Ashwani Kumar dismissed KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane from the first ball of his spell. He returned in the 11th over and struck immediately, this time getting the better of Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey. Kumar then picked up the wicket of Andre Russell.
With figures of 4/24 from three overs, he registered the best figures by an Indian bowler in the IPL. The previous best was held by Amit Singh for figures of 3/9 while playing for the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2009.
#2 Trent Boult has most wickets picked up by a bowler in the first over in the IPL
Trent Boult and wickets in the first overs are a match made in heaven. The left-arm seamer’s happy knack of picking up wickets with the new ball makes him a threat.
Boult struck once again in the first over, this time getting the better of KKR all-rounder Sunil Narine. With that, the Kiwi speedster has scalped 30 wickets in the first over out of 96 IPL matches. Bhuvneshwar Kumar occupies the second spot with 27 wickets in the first over out of 126 IPL games.
#3 Suryakumar Yadav completes 8000 T20 runs
The ace batter from Mumbai is one of the best in the world right now in the shortest format of the game. He has consistently scored runs for whichever teams he has played for.
Suryakumar Yadav was 20 runs short of 8000 runs ahead of MI’s game against the KKR. The right-hander was in ominous form on Monday night, smashing an unbeaten 27 off nine balls, including three boundaries and two sixes.
With that knock, Suryakumar has completed 8000 runs in the shortest format of the game. The 34-year-old batter now has 8007 runs to his name in 288 innings at an average of 34.21 and a strike rate of 152.28.
#4 MI now have most wins against an opponent at a venue in the IPL
Hardik Pandya and company registered their maiden win in IPL 2025, beating the Kolkata-based franchise by eight wickets in a low-scoring game. With that victory, Mumbai now have an overall 24-11 lead in 25 head-to-head matches against KKR after the first leg of IPL 2025.
Moreover, the five-time champions now have 10 matches against Kolkata at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. This is the most by a franchise against an opponent at a single venue.
KKR previously held the record by beating the Punjab Kings nine times at Eden Gardens.
#5 Hardik Pandya becomes the 4th captain to pick up 25 IPL wickets
The MI skipper brought himself as the second-change option and picked up the wicket of well-set Angkrish Raghuvanshi in the seventh over. The right-arm pacer bowled two overs in the contest and returned with 2/10.
With that wicket, Hardik now has 25 wickets to his name as a captain in the IPL. Former Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne (57) has the most number of wickets as captain in the IPL, followed by Anil Kumble (25) and Ravichandran Ashwin (25).