It seems as though the Mumbai Indians just love making horrendous starts to their IPL campaigns. The tournament kicked off with last year’s champions facing off the recently formed Rising Pune Supergiants—and the title defence couldn’t begin in a worse way.
Mumbai won the toss and decided to bat first. And that was their first mistake.
They had no answer to Ishant Sharma’s and Mitchell Marsh’s bowling as they struggled their way through the 20 overs to make 121. In response, the Pune franchise gave them nothing but took from them everything in a match that was severely one-sided.
Although the Mumbai Indians would like to forget the match, there were plenty of unforgettable moments in the match that don't fade away, quite like the Axe Signature range of body perfumes. Here are the five most memorable moments from the match:
Pune bowlers' rise
The fact that Dhoni is their captain alone makes them favourites to win the tournament—and with the bowling performance they displayed, it just furthers the solidity of that sentiment.
Only three players from Mumbai’s supposedly strong batting line up could reach double figures—and Harbhajan Singh, a bowler by trait, was the highest scorer. The Rising Pune Supergiants absolutely killed the MI batsmen as their methodical bowling on a turf with a hint of green undid their opponents.
At first, Ishant Sharma gave his team the quick wickets by sending the top order packing. Mitchell Marsh desecrated the middle order while the other bowlers took care of the rest.
And all this with Ravi Ashwin bowling only one over.
Blazing Bhajji
Harbhajan Singh might not be the bowler he once was, but he still has his moments. In terms of enigma, only a few players can rival that of Harbhajan’s. As his team fell like a pack of cards to the bowling fury of the opponents, he stood like a mountain in a tempest and shepherded his team to a score of over 120—something which seemed impossible at one stage.
He batted sensibly while wickets kept tumbling at the other end. In the end, he smacked his way through to make 45 off just 30 balls—showing that the pitch wasn’t a potato patch, rather it was the inability of Mumbai batsmen more than anything else.
Opening fury
A small target on board could be tricky, at least in a psychological sense given that history had some sour memories for the Pune franchises.
The lowest target that MI defended in their IPL history was 120 –and can you guess against who it was? Yup. Pune. In 2012. Rohit Sharma was hoping that history would repeat itself once again, but the Pune openers made sure that lightning didn’t strike at the same place twice.
Ajinkya Rahane and Faf du Plessis put in a good shift as their opening partnership put up 78 on board before breaking up in the 10th over mark—taking the game away from Mumbai.
KP’s sixes
In cricket, there is not another player that has as much flair as this Englishman. He might sport the blonde fauxhawk that he once did, but his batting style is just as stylish as it ever was.
His record in the IPL hasn’t been up to the level that he actually possess and he would like to change that this season with Pune. And he has got off to a pretty good start, albeit in a low-pressure situation.
He just faced 14 balls and scored 21 runs, hitting 2 sixes in the process to make the crowd go wild, who are now expecting him to do the same in the future.
Rahane does a Dhoni
Finishing the game with sixes is doing a Dhoni—that is his signature. In the beginning, it was his long hair, then it was his helicopter shot, then his calm and cool nature as a captain and now it is finishing a game with a six.
He did in the final of the World Cup and then the Asia Cup. Whenever the number beside runs needed is below 6 and Dhoni is on the strike, fans are always expecting him to finish it off with one shot,
Dhoni might not have had to get on the pitch today, but Rahane did his job for him. The India international has been accused of being too slow in T20s, but nobody could accuse him of that today. He played a man-of-the-match innings of 66 from 47 balls and ended the game with a six, doing a Dhoni in the process.
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