Mumbai : MI(Mumbai Indians) created double history by breaking the 13-year jinx and successfully chasing 221 against KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders)in their very first match of the Indian Premier League season 2026. MI’s opening partnership (Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton) dominance helped the team to get victory smoothly and convincingly. The pace bowling lineup brought serious trouble for KKR, which caused another loss against MI at Wankhede.
Since 2012, MI had no win in the opening match, but tonight MI broke the curse and got a win in the opening match against KKR. MI also created history in IPL by successfully chasing a massive 221runs against KKR; the last highest successful run chase by MI in IPL was 219 against Chennai Super Kings in 2021.
The 2nd match of this IPL season 2026 began with the toss won by MI, and they chose to bowl first. In the 1st innings, KKR opened with Finn Allen and the captain Ajinkya Rahane; both built a solid partnership to execute a high run score on the scoreboard. F. Allen got out at 37 runs in 17 balls,caught by TilakVarma and bowled by Shardul Thakur, after giving a standard and impactful start for KKR. Ajinkya Rahane came out as anopener and played more impressively than last season, but got out scoring 67 runs in 40 balls, again caught by Hardik Pandya and bowled by Shardul Thakur. For 3rd drop, Cameron Green, the highest-selling player in IPL 2026 auction, came to play but did not play much and got out after scoring 18 runs in 10 balls, also by Shardul Thakur. ThenAngkrish Raghuvanshi and Rinku Singh built a partnership, Angkrish Raghuvanshi played well and scored 51 runs in 29 balls. KKRscorecard was 220/4 in the first innings. MI did good fielding and disciplined bowling, especially Shardul, who took 3 wickets.
The second innings started with Rohit and R. Rickelton as the openers; MI management chose Rickelton over Quinton de Kock, and he proved the value of choosing him. Both built a magnificent and match-winning partnership, which became the major reason to win the match with dominance. Rohit Sharma played in his classic form and scored 78 runs in 38 balls. R. Rickelton did a great and impressive job by scoring 81in 43 balls.
After a few overs,Ajinkya left the field due to injury, and Rinku, the vice-captain of KKR, led the team. KKRruled out major pace bowlers due to injury and retained some new pacers; this condition of not having that much experienced pacers in the team made the pace bowling lineup suffer in a questionable position before starting the season. This questionable situation came out clearly in front of this massive partnership. Also, KKR’s spinners, Varun and Sunil Narine, did not do a good job in this match, as they came to bowl after the openers were set.
After doing a fantastic job, Rohit got out, caught by Anukul Roy and bowled by Vaibhav Arora, a beautiful catch by Anukul Roy. Then the T20 World Cup-winning captain Surya Kumar Yadav came and scored 18 runs in 8 balls, got out early by Kartik Tyagi. Then Tilak and Hardik, the captain, took forward the match;
Tilak got out scoring 20 runs in 14 balls, wicket taken by Sunil Narine.Naman Dhir finished the match with 5 runs in 2 balls.KKR bowling and fielding faced struggles in the match; they drop few catches also, which had a strong impact on their loss. MI started the season with electrifying energy and confidence, which showcased the power and strength of the team for this season. Both teams will play against each other again on May 20 at KKR’s home ground, Eden Gardens.
