Revisiting Mumbai Indians' last 5 season-opening defeats

The Mumbai Indians, owned by the Reliance Industries, is the most successful team in the Indian Premier League, winning 3 out of the 10 seasons of the popular league. Rohit Sharma has led MI to all three of their title wins and is the most successful captain in the history of IPL.

The team won its maiden IPL title in 2013 after defeating the Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs in the finals and has gone on to win two more titles after that.

MI has been a horrible starter and has lost its previous five opening games. The last time MI won its opening game was way back in 2012. The team has failed to repeat its winning performance in subsequent season openers. Though it has somehow managed to peak at the right time and has looked comfortable in the latter half of the tournament.

In a new season and at the dawn of a new decade of IPL, MI will look to start winning early and breathe easy as far as a place in the play-offs is concerned.

Here is a look at the last 5 MI defeats in its season openers.

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#5 RCB vs MI (Match No. 2 - April 4, 2013)

Vinay Kumar held his nerve in the final over to pull off a thriller

The series of defeats started in 2013, where the Mumbai Indians lost its first match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a last over thriller. After RCB scored a challenging 156, thanks to Chris Gayle’s unbeaten 92 and Virat’s supporting knock, the Mumbai Indians needed 10 runs to win off the last over.

Vinay Kumar had been given the responsibility to bowl the final over and Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu were out in the middle for the Mumbai Indians. Kumar dismissed both of them in consecutive deliveries while conceding only a bye.

With 8 required off final 2 deliveries and the giant Kieron Pollard on strike, it was still anybody’s game. Vinay Kumar, however, brought all his experience into play and conceded just 5 of the last two balls to clinch the match by a narrow margin of 2 runs.

#4 KKR vs MI (Match No. 1 - April 16, 2014)

Kallis scored 72 off just 46 balls in the 2014 encounter

In IPL-2014 opener two heavyweights - Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders were against each other at Abu Dhabi. Although a close contest was expected, KKR started with a thumping victory instead, clearly being the better team on the day.

Batting first the KKR made an impressive 163 riding on Jacques Kallis and Manish Pandey’s batting efforts. Having to chase a target of 164, MI never really looked comfortable and eventually landed up 41 runs short, despite the efforts of Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu.

#3 KKR vs MI (Match No. 1 - April 8, 2015)

Rohit Sharma remained unbeaten on 98 in the 2015 season opener

The year after, both KKR and MI met again, but this time at the home of Bengal Cricket - Eden Gardens. The Mumbai Indians batted first in the match, and aided by Rohit Sharma’s excellent knock ended up scoring 168, 5 more than what KKR had scored in the previous season’s opening encounter.

However, the Knight Riders were in total control of the run chase and never let the required run rate go out of reach. Having wickets in hand also helped their cause and in a complete team effort - Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey and Gautam Gambhir scored 40 plus, with Gambhir managing to complete his half-century.

The Knights won the match by 7 wickets with 9 unused deliveries.

#2 MI vs RPS (Match No. 1 - April 9, 2016)

Harbhajan's 45 off 30 balls helped MI reach a somewhat respectable total

The two Maharashtrian teams opened their campaign in the next two seasons. Having failed massively while batting first, at one point even crossing the 100-run mark looked very difficult for the Mumbai-based franchise against the Rising Pune Supergiant.

Thanks to Harbhajan Singh’s courageous 45 off just 30 deliveries, MI had some hope left in the match. However, RPS was never in any spot of bother in the run chase and only lost the wicket of Faf du Plessis in the process.

RPS won the match by 9 wickets with more than 5 overs to go.

#1 RPS vs. MI (Match No. 2 - April 6, 2017)

Smith's unbeaten 84 off 54 helped RPS go past Mumbai's 184

In 2017, MI began their campaign against RPS and hoped that it would break the jinx finally. However, even after scoring a match-winning total of 184 on the board, MI failed to defend the runs on the board and started once again on a losing note.

Thanks to Jos Buttler and Hardik Pandya’s cameos, the Mumbai Indians put up their best batting performance in an opening game in last 5 years. But this proved to be totally ineffective against the class of Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith who managed to keep wickets in hand and held their nerves to cross the line in the end.

Supergiant won by 7 wickets with just 1 ball remaining.