IPL: Tournament openers across all seasons

2009 – CSK vs MI, Cape Town

Sachin Tendulkar was the Man of the Match for his unbeaten knock of 59.

After the success of the inaugural World T20 in South Africa, the IPL was shifted to the Rainbow Nation due to the General Elections. Runner-ups in the first season of the IPL were up against Mumbai Indians in the first game of the 2009 season.

After playing only the second half of the first season, Sachin Tendulkar helped Mumbai begin on a positive note. After being put into bat, MI were off to a decent start as they reached 40/1 in 6 overs. But as the innings went along Tendulkar slowly started to shift gears. He found the boundary more often and ended up scoring a 49-ball 59. Abhishek Nayar’s quick-fire cameo of 35 (in 14 balls) propelled MI to 165.

Chasing 166, CSK kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were largely behind the eight-ball. Even Dhoni’s late blitz couldn’t help CSK get over the line as MI won by 19 runs. Malinga bowled wonderfully as he took 3/15 to put the brakes on a strong CSK batting line-up.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 166 for 7 (Tendulkar 59*, Nayar 35, Gony 2/32) beat Chennai Super Kings 145 for 7 (Hayden 44, Dhoni 36, Malinga 3-15, Jayasuriya 2/34)