Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a heavy eight-wicket defeat against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 12th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Monday at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane admitted that the team’s poor batting performance cost them the game, as they failed to build crucial partnerships on a favourable batting pitch.
Kolkata Knight Riders Fail to Post a Competitive Total
Batting first, KKR struggled right from the start, losing wickets at regular intervals and failing to form any significant partnerships. The team was bowled out for just 116 runs in the 17th over. MI’s debutant left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar made history by becoming the first Indian bowler to claim a four-wicket haul on his IPL debut.
Not a single KKR batter scored 30 odd runs with the highest score of Angkrish Raghuvanshi being of 26 runs in 16 balls. It seemed as if KKR’s batters wanted to just swing the bat and dictate the terms against MI. There was a tragic collapse from 80-6 to 116 all out which raises questions over the team’s dynamics and approach.
We kept on losing wickets- Ajinkya Rahane
Chasing 117, Mumbai Indians comfortably reached the target in just 13 overs. Wicketkeeper-batter Ryan Rickelton starred with the bat, scoring 62 runs off 41 balls, including four fours and five sixes. KKR’s only highlight in the bowling department was Andre Russell, who dismissed Rohit Sharma and Will Jacks, but the rest of the bowlers went wicketless.
Ajinkya Rahane had a very short stay at the crease when he scored 11 runs in 7 balls & the decision to attack the debutant Ashwani Kumar backfired very badly. Ajinkya Rahane acknowledged the challenges in the press conference, stating,
“Collective batting failure. It was a good wicket to bat on as I mentioned in the toss. 180-190 would have been good on this wicket. It has a very good bounce. Sometimes you have to use the pace and bounce. We got to learn fast from this game. Couldn’t do much with the ball. They tried their best. But not much runs on the board. We kept on losing wickets. Four wickets in the powerplay. It was difficult to consolidate and get that total on the board. You need that partnership going. You need one batsman to stay till the end,”
With this loss, Ajinkya Rahane needs to regroup quickly as the next match is against SRH on 3rd April at Kolkata and work on their batting depth as the tournament progresses.
Read more:Â https://goworldwide.co.in/ipl-2025-shreevats-goswami-adds-extra-layer-to-eden-gardens-pitch-controversy/