Rising Pune Supergiants impressed on their IPL debut as they defeated defending champions Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets in the season-opener of Vivo IPL 2016. After restricting the hosts to a modest 121-8 at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, the debutants knocked off the required runs in 14.4 overs.
Set a target of 122, RPS made light work of the chase as their opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Faf du Plessis added 78 runs in 9.4 overs. The former was the more aggressive of the two RPS openers, while the latter got stuck into Jasprit Bumrah in particular. The visitors raced to 57 for no loss at the end of the Powerplay overs and thereafter milked the runs, before du Plessis dragged a Harbhajan Singh delivery back onto his stumps; the South African made 34 from 33 balls.
Ajinkya Rahane brought up his half-century decorated with plenty of aggressive strokes off 33 balls – his quickest in the IPL, and in the company of Kevin Pietersen (21 from 14 balls) ensured there would be no further damage in the run-chase.
Earlier in the evening, MS Dhoni’s midas touch, along with some disciplined bowling on a pitch which wasn’t easy for batting, caused much strife to the Mumbai Indians. After being given the opportunity to bowl first up in the match, Rising Pune Supergiants reduced the hosts to 37 for four in the first six overs. Ishant Sharma set the tone for the visitors when he dismissed the home team captain Rohit Sharma first ball of the second over. The lanky speedster had his second in two overs when he found the middle peg behind Lendl Simmons; MI were reduced to 29 for 2.
Hardik Pandya’s surprise promotion to number three didn’t yield too many, while Jos Buttler had a forgettable IPL debut, edging one to R Ashwin in the fifth over, before he had opened his account. MI continued to slip as they lost Kieron Pollard (playing his 300th T20 match) and Shreyas Gopal for single-figures – making it six batsmen dismissed for single-digit scores in the top seven. Ambati Rayudu (22) held fort at one end, before he was seventh out in the sixteenth over with just 68 runs on the board.
Mumbai Indians edged closer to the 100-run mark thanks to the seventh-wicket partnership between Harbhajan Singh and R Vinay Kumar (who was playing his 100th IPL match) which yielded 28 runs. The hosts reached a respectable total, thanks mainly to Harbhajan, who found the boundary five times right at the end. From 22 off 24 balls, the MI off-spinner added 23 off the next six balls (four boundaries and a six) he faced to help his team finish with a flourish. The last three overs of the innings yielded 10, 14 and 17 runs as MI finished at 121 for 8.
On the bowling front, barring the final over in which they conceded 17 runs, the Rising Pune Supergiants bowlers had a pretty good day. MS Dhoni’s midas touch came to the fore when four of his bowling changes brought him wickets instantly; Ishant, Mitchell Marsh, Rajat Bhatia and R Ashwin struck with their respective first deliveries, while debutant Murugan Ashwin picked up a wicket with the final delivery of his first over. Ishant and Marsh returned with two scalps apiece, while the remaining four bowlers picked up one wicket each. A special mention ought to be made of Bhatia, who bowled 17 dot balls and returned with immensely impressive figures of 4-1-10-1.
Brief Scores
Mumbai Indians 121-8 in 20.0 Overs (Harbhajan Singh 45*, Mitchell Marsh 2-21, Ishant Sharma 2-36)
Rising Pune Supergiants 126-1 in 14.4 Overs (Ajinkya Rahane 66*, Harbhajan Singh 1-24) by 9 wickets
