“Collective batting failure”: Rahane on 8 wickets loss against Mumbai Indians

New Delhi [India] March 31 (ANI): Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Ajinkya Rahane spoke about KKR’s defeat against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 12th match of Indian Premier League 2025.

While speaking in the post-match presentation, Rahane attributed the loss to a collective batting failure, highlighting a lack of partnerships and a failure to capitalize on a good batting wicket. He believed a score of 180-190 would have been achievable, but the team lost too many wickets early, making it difficult to recover. He also acknowledges the bowlers’ efforts despite the low total.

“Collective batting failure. It was a good wicket bat on as I mentioned in the toss. 180-190 would have been good on this wicket. It has a very good bounce. Sometimes you have to use the pace and bounce. We got to learn fast from this game. Couldn’t do much with the ball. They tried their best. But not much runs on the board. We kept on losing wickets. Four wickets in the powerplay. It was difficult to consolidate and get that total on the board. You need that partnership going. You need one batsman to stay till the end.” Rahane said in the post-match presentation.

MI defeated KKR by eight wickets in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Monday at the Wankhade cricket stadium, in Mumbai. KKR were bowled out for 116 in the 17th over, courtesy of MI left-arm seamer Ashwani Kumar who made history by becoming the first Indian bowler to take a four-wicket haul on IPL debut.

KKR lost wickets on regular intervals, and they did not had any strong partnership throughout the innings, While bowling only Andre Russell took two wickets of Rohit Sharma and Will Jacks, the rest all the KKR bowlers went wicketless in the second innings.

MI chased 117 in the 13th over wicketkeeper batter Ryan Rickelton being the top scorer for MI in the second innings with 62 runs in 41 balls including 4 fours and 5 sixes.