Noor’s spin magic gives Chasak a smart win|

Mumbai Indians’ bad record in the first match of the season continues. They had won the first match of their IPL season in 2012, when they defeated Chennai Super Kings in Chennai. This time too the venue and opponents were the same, but Mumbai lost by 4 wickets on Sunday.

Mumbai, without its regular captain Hardik Pandya, lost former captain Rohit Sharma in the first over of the game. After that, the team could never get out of trouble and could only reach 155/9 when they were asked to bat first.

For Sur Kings, Ruturaj Gaikwad (53 off 26 balls) and opener Rachinn Ravindra (65 not out off 45 balls ) combined with the bowling performances of Khaleel Ahmed (3/29) and Noor Ahmad (4/18) to help the team win with 5 balls remaining.

Captain’s Knock

MI did not accept defeat without a fight. Impact layer Vignesh Puthur (3/32), a Malappura born left and wrist spinner, took three wickets in quick succession. But even after the mini collapse, Sur Kings never came under pressure as skipper Gaikwad took a bold approach and hit 6 boundaries and 3 axes which kept the required run rate under control.

Tricky, two placed surface, Gaikwad had a strike rate of 203.84 which was very impressive.

Recious Spell

At the time of batting, MI tried to come back in the game after early setbacks with a steady stand between stand-in batsman Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma. But Noor (4/18) broke the 51 run stand. The left arm wrist spinner first stumped Surya, then dismissed IPL debutant Robin Minz, and then took the important wicket of Tilak. For his fourth wicket, Noor clean bowled Naman Dhir.

Khaleel’s Burst

Khaleel shook MI right from the start. Khaleel laid the foundation for Super Kings’ victory by taking wickets of Rohit, who was forced to play false shots due to Khaleel’s subtle swing, and Ryan Rickelton, who was dismissed after getting hit on his stumps.

MI

Extras (b-4,Ib-1, w-4) 10
Total (9 wickets, 20 overs) 158
Fall of wickets: 1/0, 2/21, 3/36 4/87, 5/95, 6/96, 7/118, 8/128, 9/141
Impact Players:Vignesh Puthur for rohit Sharma

CSK

Extras (w-5) 5
Total (6 wickets, 19.1 overs) 158
Fall of wickets: 1/11, 2/78, 3/95 4/107, 5/116, 6/152
Impact Players: Rahul Tripathi for Khaleel Ahmed
CSK won by 4 wickets
MOM: Noor Ahmed