Mumbai: Left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar dazzled on IPL debut with 4/24 as Mumbai Indians’ seamers shot out defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders for a mere 116 in 16.2 overs for the lowest score of this season here Monday.
The 23-year-old Ashwani accounted for Ajinkya Rahane (11), Rinku Singh (17), impact sub Manish Pandey (17) and Andre Russell (5) to break the Knight Riders’ back after Deepak Chahar (2/19) and Trent Boult (1/23) made early inroads in the powerplay.
With that stellar effort, Ashwani became the first Indian to take four wickets in his maiden IPL outing.
KKR had a forgettable start when their openers Quinton de Kock (1) and Sunil Narine (0) fell inside the first two overs and by the end of the powerplay, the visitors had limped to 41 for four.
On a fresh Wankhede Stadium pitch which offered bounce and swing with the new ball, MI bowlers capitalised on lack of application shown by KKR batters.
Boult outsmarted Narine with a fuller one which swung away to clean him up in the first over.
In the next over, Chahar had de Kock caught at mid-off with Ashwani timing his jump perfectly to complete a sharp grab.
Rahane hit a six and a four to counterattack but perished soon after for Ashwani’s maiden wicket on his first ball.
The Punjab seamer lured Rahane outside the off and KKR skipper obliged, albeit hitting in the air with the ball flying to deep backward point.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi (26) looked the most promising when he began with a couple of attractive fours on both sides of the wicket and also hit Ashwani into the stands for one of the few sixes which KKR hit.
But Raghuvanshi was also guilty of throwing it away when he hit one short ball meekly off Hardik Pandya (1/10) and Naman Dhir did a fine job running from deep square leg to take the catch.
Pandey, pressed into service as an impact sub with KKR reeling at 45 for five, could not make the opportunity count and was cleaned up by Ashwani in the 11th over.
Dhir was in action again when Rinku danced down the track to smash a short ball from Ashwani two balls later but was caught at deep point.
