slammed his fastest half century in the Indian Premier League in just 23 deliveries while his opening partner Ryan Rickelton absolutely devoured the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers with his 81 off 43 runs as Mumbai Indians broke their 13-year hoodoo as they won their first opening IPL match since 2013 by 6 wickets.
Rohit and Rickelton’s opening partnership was worth 148 runs before Vaibhav Arora finally gave some semblance of respite as the former was caught by Anukul Roy for 78 runs. With the knock, Rohit now has 1161 runs against the , the highest by a player in the against any opponent. The opening partnership was also ’ highest-ever against the Knight Riders.
Earlier, skipper Ajinkya Rahane (67) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (51) struck vital half-centuries but Kolkata Knight Riders posted a par score of 220 for 4. On a placid wicket, Shardul Thakur (3/39) provided Mumbai crucial breakthroughs as their bowlers could not really impose themselves in their maiden outing. Both senior pacers (0/38) and (0/35) went wicketless but India pace spearhead’s 18th and 20th over stopped KKR from getting closer to 250.
Rahane began with a wristy flick over wide long-on with exquisite timing for a six off Boult in the first over, KKR got the impetus when (1/39) erred with line and lengths throughout the fourth over to give away 26 runs. The skipper helped himself with two pick-up shots down the leg for consecutive sixes while Finn Allen (37 off 17 balls) drilled Pandya down the ground for a powerful hit for four, ending with a scoop past the ‘keeper and short fine leg for a third boundary.
Before that, Allen had clobbered two sixes and a four off debutant Allah Ghazanfar (0/51) to collect 17 runs in the third over. Despite Thakur striking on his second ball to get rid of Finn, caught by Tilak Varma off an innocuous at long-on, KKR stood a happier side at 78/1 after the powerplay. KKR crossed the 100-run mark inside the eighth over and Rahane looked set for a triple digit score at one stage, striking over 200.
But Thakur’s twin strikes in separate spells broke the momentum for the visitors, which also saw the new batters not being able to keep up. The burly Cameron Green was forced to chase short and wide deliveries by Thakur in the ninth over and on second such ball, the Australian hit it straight to Sherfane Rutherford who took a fine diving catch in front. Then, in his third and 14th over of the innings, Thakur deceived Rahane with a slower cross-seam delivery outside the off which the KKR skipper hit inside out, only to be caught by his counterpart at cover with ease despite moving some paces behind.
