Chennai Super Kings got the better of the Mumbai Indians in the opening match of the IPL. Mumbai Indians got off to a good start with the bat. Quinton de Kock and Saurabh Tiwary were Mumbai’s top scorers on the day, but they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. South African pacer Lungi Ngidi started his spell on a bad note but came back strongly and took 3 wickets.
Chennai Super Kings were chasing a total of 163 runs, which always seemed gettable. Debutants Trent Boult and James Pattinson did take one wicket each during the powerplay overs. Faf du Plessis and Ambati Rayudu combined to form a 100-run partnership, which eventually gave CSK the victory. Rayudu was the man of the match as he scored 71 runs in 48 balls.
Here are three things we learned from the match:
Pitch offered help for seamers
UAE is renowned for its spin-friendly pitches. Spin was supposed to be the name of the game ahead of the opening game of this season’s IPL, but the pitch report suggested otherwise. During the pitch report, Kevin Pietersen suggested it’ll be a high scoring contest by UAE standards, which can often produce some low totals.
MS Dhoni and co well understood this as they decided to utilise Lungi Ngidi’s seam bowling credentials over his fellow countryman Imran Tahir. This paid off beautifully as Ngidi picked up 3 wickets towards the latter half of Mumbai’s innings, including the big fish Kieron Pollard.
Mumbai Indians always follow the trend
Mumbai Indians have lifted the IPL trophy 4 times in the last 7 seasons to become the most successful IPL team. It is also a well-known fact that Mumbai Indians have earned all their titles in odd years. It has become a sort of tradition now.
Another trend that Mumbai Indians have been following since the last 7 years is that they have lost the first in each season. Since 2013, the Rohit Sharma-led team has started the tournament on a bad note. They were still considered strong favourites in the build-up for this match, so maybe the bookies need to do some more homework from next time.
Both teams are spoilt for choice
Although Mumbai Indians lost the game, some of their players produced good performances. Saurabh Tiwary, who played instead of Ishan Kishan, looked solid during his knock of 42. James Pattinson was stellar during his first spell of 3 overs. Despite conceding many runs in his last over, he finished his 4 overs quota with a record of 1 wicket for 27 runs. Due to his performance, it will be tough to keep him out of the side for Nathan Coulter-Nile or Mitch McClenaghan, who seemed to be ahead of him in the pecking order.
As for CSK, they benched Bravo for Sam Curran as he was carrying a niggle. It paid off as Curran not only took a wicket during his economical spell but also scored a quickfire cameo, which saw CSK sail to victory. Stephen Fleming will be scratching their head once Bravo, who is their leading wicket-taker of all time, is back to full fitness.
