IPL 2016- Mumbai Indians (MI) v Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS)
The IPL 2016 was a different Indian Premier League season as two former champion teams in Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were banned for two years each for their involvement in spot-fixing and betting during IPL 2013.
This led to two new teams in Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) and Gujarat Lions (GL) taking their places and the RPS team faced defending champions MI in the season opener at Wankhede Stadium.
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Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat, but his team managed just 121/8 in 20 overs with Harbhajan Singh top-scoring with 45*. Ishant Sharma and Mitchell Marsh picked two wickets each for RPS.
In their chase, Ajinkya Rahane made 66*, Faf du Plessis (34), and Kevin Pietersen (21*) ensured that RPS won the game by 9 wickets and 32 balls in hand.
IPL 2017- Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) v Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
The IPL 2017 saw new champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) taking on the IPL 2016 finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the season opener in Hyderabad. RCB won the toss and chose to bowl first.
However, the story remained the same as SRH posted 207/4 with Moises Henriques (52) and Yuvraj Singh (62) being the top-scorers.
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In reply, despite starts from Chris Gayle (32), Travis Head (30), and Kedar Jadhav (31), the RCB team couldn’t really get going in the chase, with Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan picked two wickets each.
RCB folded for 172 runs to give the defending champs SRH the victory by 35 runs.
IPL 2018- Mumbai Indians (MI) v Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
The IPL 2018 welcomed back Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) back in the IPL fold and MS Dhoni returned to lead CSK in the season opener against now three-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium.
This match is considered a classic which CSK won because of just one man, Dwayne Bravo. MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to field first against Rohit Sharma’s MI. MI managed to string up 165/4 on a batting beauty with Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav making 40 and 43 respectively and Krunal Pandya blitzing 41* in 22 balls.
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In reply, CSK looked out of the game at 118/8, with Kedar Jadhav out injured. But Dwayne Bravo took on MI’s best bowler Jasprit Bumrah, repeatedly depositing him for sixes. He made 68 runs before getting out before the final over.
Then Kedar Jadhav hobbled on one leg and smacked Mustafizur Rahman for a six and four to lead CSK to an unprecedented victory by one wicket.
