Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane talked about their loss to the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 12th match of the 2025 Indian Premier League. In the post-match interview, he said that the team’s batting just didn’t come together. They missed out on playing well together and couldn’t make the most of a decent batting pitch. Rahane felt that scoring around 180-190 runs was possible, but losing too many wickets early on made it hard to bounce back. He also recognized that the bowlers did their best, given the low score they had to defend.
“It was a combined failure with the bat. The pitch was good for batting, as I said at the toss. We could have done better with a score of 180-190. The bounce was nice. We need to learn quickly from this match. The bowlers did what they could, but with not many runs, it was tough. We lost four wickets in the powerplay, which made it hard to build a decent total. We need those partnerships, and one batsman has to stay till the end,” Rahane shared after the game.
MI beat KKR by eight wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. KKR was bowled out for 116 runs in 17 overs, with MI’s Ashwani Kumar making a splash by becoming the first Indian bowler to take four wickets on his IPL debut. KKR lost wickets consistently and didn’t form any strong partnerships. When it came to bowling, only Andre Russell managed to take two wickets, while the rest of the KKR bowlers ended up with none. MI chased down the target of 117 runs in just 13 overs, with wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton top-scoring for MI with 62 runs off 41 balls, including 4 fours and 5 sixes.