New Delhi: Mumbai Indians ended their long-awaited winning start to the IPL season by beating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by six wickets in a chase of 221 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.Mumbai had not won their opening match of an IPL season since 2012, but they broke that run with a successful chase at home and they did so with their biggest chase in IPL history.The previous highest for MI was 219 against CSK in Delhi in 2021. Openers Rohit Sharma (78 off 38 balls) and Ryan Rickelton (81 off 43 balls) scored half-centuries to give the team a strong start. The following batsmen kept the score going as Mumbai completed the chase.The last time Mumbai won their opening match was in 2012 against Chennai Super Kings.Earlier, KKR posted 220 for 4 after half-centuries from skipper Ajinkya Rahane (67) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (51).Shardul Thakur returned figures of 3 for 39 and provided important wickets, although the Mumbai bowlers found it difficult to contain the scoring. Trent Boult (0/38) and Jasprit Bumrah (0/35) went wicketless, but Bumrah’s overs prevented KKR from getting close to 250.Rahane scored 67 runs off 40 balls with the help of five sixes and three fours. He also hit a six over Mayank Markande and a six over midwicket off Ghazanfar.Raghuvanshi started slowly but picked up by the end. He was dismissed for 21 runs by Rohit off Ghazanfar in the 15th over. He later reached his fifty before being dismissed for 51 off 29 balls by Pandya in the 19th over, which included six fours and two sixes.KKR posted 220 for 4, but Mumbai chased down the target of registering their first IPL opening match win in over a decade.
Poll
Which player do you think had the best performance in the match?
Here are some more stats from the match.Most wins against an opponent at any point in the IPL11 – MI vs KKR at Wankhede (13 Mets)*9 – KKR vs PBKS at Kolkata (14 Mets)9 – SRH vs PBKS at Hyderabad (10 Mets)Most times successfully chasing 200 plus in IPL.8 – PBKS6 – MI*4 – RR4 – SRH4 – RCB
