The Kolkata Knight Riders got off to a flying start in their Tata IPL opener against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday evening, racing to 78/1 by the end of the six over powerplay.
Openers Finn Allen, 37 off 17 (6x4; 2x6), and Ajinkya Rahane, 36no off 18 (3x4; 3x6) tore into the Mumbai bowlers, as they combined for a 69-run first wicket partnership off just 32 balls, before the home side struck their first blow.
At the start of play it was the hosts Mumbai who won the toss and chose to bowl first, but they were unable to get an early breakthrough.
Just 14 runs came off the first two overs bowled by Trent Boult and Hardik Pandya, but it was the third over bowled by mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar that saw the Knight Riders open up, as Allen punished the short ball, hitting two sixes and a four as 17 came off it.
The fourth over from Pandya, who’s first had gone for just four, disappeared for 26 runs, after back-to-back sixes from Rahane, and three fours off the bat of Allen saw them power past 50.
Jasprit Bumrah was then brought into the attack in the fifth over to try get the breakthrough, but he was unable to and went for 11 runs.
However Shardul Thakur was next to be thrown the ball, the final of the powerplay, and he had the golden arm as a slower ball proved to be the undoing of Allen as he found the patrolling Tilak Varma at wide long on, but the over still went for 10 runs.
The Knight Riders will now be eager to continue their great start to the match, while Mumbai will be hunting wickets to try and stem the flow of runs.
MUMBAI INDIANS: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (capt), Sherfane Rutherford, Naman Dhir, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Markande, AM Ghazanfar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy, Blessing Muzarabani