The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League got underway as arch-rivals Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings locked horns in the opening encounter of the tournament. It was CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who won the toss and put the hosts in. Mumbai Indians began poorly losing both their openers Evin Lewis and Rohit Sharma in quick succession.
However, it was a brilliant innings by Suryakumar Yadav which helped Mumbai recover from the precarious start and register a competitive total on the board. He played some gorgeous shots before being eventually dismissed on 43. He went for a big shot but ended up giving an easy catch. The late impetus to the innings was provided by Krunal Pandya who started smashing the boundaries from the outset.
He smashed 5 fours and a couple of sixes during his quickfire knock of 41 of just 22 deliveries. Hardik Pandya struggled throughout his innings of 22 of 20 deliveries. He struck a couple of boundaries and injured his leg in the last over of the innings. However, he recovered in time and returned to bowl when the three-time champions came out to defend the total.
Chasing a tricky total, Chennai Super Kings lost Shane Watson after he got them off to a good start. Ambati Rayudu was his partner. At the score of 27, it was Hardik Pandya who provided the maiden breakthrough in the form of Watson’s wicket. Pandya also sent back Suresh Raina in quick time to put off the oppositions.
Young leg-spinner Mayank Markande was impressive in his opening spell as he dismissed Ambati Rayudu with a terrific leg break. He missed out on his 2nd wicket when Rohit Sharma didn’t go for the review of Kedar Jadhav.
However, he got the prized wicket of Dhoni in his very next over as he bamboozled him with a wrong un. The ball came in sharply and struck him plumb in front. He went for the review but as expected the decision went in favour of the bowling team. Chennai was never in the game as they kept losing wickets on a consistent basis.
Markande finished his spell with the wicket of Deepak Chahar to finish with magical figures of 3/24 in his very first match for the Mumbai Indians. It was Mustafizur Rahman who dismissed Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell McClenaghan came back in his 2nd spell to send back Harbhajan Singh.
In the end it was a magical innings from the blade of Dwayne Bravo which turned the match on it’s head. He was simply sensational and struck 7 sixes during his knock of 68 of a mere 30 deliveries. It included 3 fours and 7 hits over the fence. Bravo struck 3 sixes of the penultimate over to bring the calculation down to 7 of the last over. However his wicket in the last delivery again shifted the scales in favour of Mumbai.
Kedhar Jadhav came out to bat after retiring hurt following his injury. After missing out in the first three deliveries he smashed a sensational six of Mustafizur Rahman over the fine leg region. Jadhav eventually sealed the deal in the 5th delivery of the match smashing a terrific cover drive in the final delivery. There is no doubt about the fact that Bravo was awarded the Man of the Match.
Here is what MS Dhoni the winning captain said at the post-match presentation
I think they missed the competition. CSK-MI is one game that people wait to watch. We’re coming back after two years, that’s also the reason that people are eager to watch us in action. I’m a practical person, so I was hoping in the dressing room that the quantum of defeat wasn’t too big. The way Bravo batted, it was really good to see him take the responsibility. Don’t think we batted well as a team. But it’s the first game, so we’ll take the positives out of it. The kind of players we have got, our selection will be based on horses for courses. We’ll have to keep an eye on lot of things.
Spare a thought for 20-year old leg-spinner Mayank Markande, who had an exceptional debut, completely deceiving some old-timers like Dhoni and Rayudu. He put Mumbai in a position where it would’ve been very hard to lose. What did he know what was to follow? One of the very best at the death, Jasprit Bumrah was treated like a rag-doll by Bravo as he carted 20 runs off the penultimate over to set the cat among the pigeons. With 7 needed from the final one, Jadhav almost sealed it with a six over fine leg and then drilled the next ball through the covers to complete the heist. Time for the presentations.
