In the IPL or in the T20 format in general, often a lot of the magic with bat and ball happens during the Powerplay overs.
It this defined as this mandatory phase in each of the two innings, where for the first six overs, only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard cycle.
Typically, this is a batsman’s dream but tonight it turned out to be a nightmare phase for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as they lost four of their top order bats for a paltry 41 runs.
For context, the highest Powerplay scores in the IPL this season have ranged between 77 to 94 and historically, on four occasions, teams have even scored more than hundred runs in these stipulated six overs.
This was KKR’s worst Powerplay performance in IPL 2025 and overall, the second worst show after CSK’s 30/3 in their opening game against RCB.
It all started with a yorker. The game at the Wankhede began with a tantalising match-up between Trent Boult and Sunil Narine, which the former won within two deliveries when he smashed the middle-stump with a ball that curved out.
It was 1/1 and within three deliveries the scorecard read 2/2 when the experienced Deepak Chahar tempted Quinton de Kock with a length delivery outside off.
On another day, the ball would have been lofted to the boundary but today it didn’t get the needed elevation and landed into the hands of Ashwani Kumar, the debutant, who joined the Powerplay party within a couple of overs.
Ashwani enjoyed a dream start to his IPL career, when he got Ajinkya Rahane off the very first ball, when he angled a full delivery outside off-stump, which was sliced hard to deep backward point. Tilak Varma fumbled at first but managed to gobble it up on the second attempt.
It was yet another disappointing evening for Venkatesh Iyer, who KKR had retained for Rs 23.75 crore at the mega auction late last year. He was cramped for room, when attempting an upper cut off a nippy bouncer off Chahar.
At 41 for 4, KKR seemed to have choked, and the Mumbai Indians had seized all the momentum at home.
Ashwani went on to pick three more wickets to break the back of KKR’s middle order and eventually went on to to win the Player of the Match award, as MI registered an eight-wicket win.
In contrast, with just 117 runs to chase, MI made steady progress during the Powerplay and put on 55 runs for the loss of Rohit Sharma’s wicket.
Spencer Johnson & Harshit Rana bowled a few fiery deliveries upfront and gave away only 4 runs in the first ten deliveries. Thereafter it was the beginning of the Ryan Rickleton show, where in the young lad from South Africa, went onto score his maiden half century in the IPL.
His 62* came at a strike rate of 151 thanks to five sixes and 4 boundaries.
Mumbai have finally won a match this season and have gone up to the 6th place in the leaderboard, with a positive Net Run Rate thanks to today’s victory margin!
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