What happened the last time MI played KKR in Mumbai before IPL 2025?

Mumbai Indians (MI) will play their first home game on Monday, March 31, against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the iconic Wankhede Stadium. Both teams are set to play their respective third matches of the ongoing 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL).

The last time these two teams faced each other at this venue was in IPL 2024, where KKR bagged a comfortable win against the five-time champions. Even after a poor outing with the bat, their bowlers stood out in the clash.

Batting first after losing the toss, KKR had a start to forget as their top order batters - Phil Salt, Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi - and skipper Shreyas Iyer were dismissed cheaply inside the powerplay. Of these four batters, only Raghuvanshi could cross the 10-figure mark.

Salt, Iyer, and Narine, dismissed in the first, third, and fifth overs, respectively, could score only 5(3), 6(4), and 8(8) runs. Rinku Singh, who found himself batting early in the powerplay, walked back after scoring an eight-ball nine on the first delivery of the seventh over as KKR found themselves at 57-5.

Then the decisive partnership between Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey changed the face of the game. The duo added 83 runs off 62 deliveries for the sixth wicket and got their side to a decent total.

Pandey fell eight runs short of a half-century, but Venkatesh Iyer kept going till the final over, only to be dismissed at 70(52) on the penultimate delivery of the innings as the visitors closed in at 169/10.

Nuwan Thusara and Jasprit Bumrah were the leading wicket-takers MI with three scalps each. While Hardik Pandya finished with two wickets, Piyush Chawla ended with one.

MI’s batting unit left bamboozled by Mitchell Starc’s magic

KKR’s costliest buy of the IPL 2024 season, Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, played a vital role in KKR’s defense in the second innings. Like KKR, MI too witnessed a batting collapse as the top-order, consisting of Ishan Kishan, Naman Dhir, and Rohit Sharma, crumbled inside the first six overs.

Suryakumar Yadav held the innings from one end and went on to score a composed half-century, but he kept losing partners on the other end and struggled to form a steady partnership. His 49-run partnership with Tim David was the only highlight of MI’s chase, and even there, the Indian middle-order batter dominated the show.

Three of MI’s top middle-order batters - Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya and Nehal Wadhera - registered scores in single digits as Starc made merry of the conditions. He finished with a four-wicket haul, dismissing Kishan, David, Gerald Coetzee, and Chawla.

The spin-bowling trio of Varun Chakaravarthy, Narine, and Andre Russell equally shared six wickets among themselves as KKR held MI to 145 in 18.5 overs to win by 24 runs.