The much-awaited 11th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) finally got underway at the iconic Wankhede Stadium on Saturday (April 7). Defending champions Mumbai Indians locked horns against the Chennai Super Kings in the first match of the cash-rich event, with the latter securing a thrilling 1-wicket victory.

Making his IPL debut, the 20-year-old Mayank Markande was the shining star for Mumbai as he scalped 3 wickets for 23 runs in his 4 overs. Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni and Deepak Chahar were the victims of Markande.

Mayank was playing a U-23 game for Punjab on the auction day in January and had no idea that he has been purchased by the Mumbai Indians for the 2018 season of IPL for a price of 20 lakhs. Such is the change in fortune now that he has become the hot topic of discussion on social media.  

After being put into bat, Mumbai Indians rode on Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav’s scintillating 78-run stand to overcome the early hiccups. While Kishan scored a fluent 29-ball 40, Suryakumar played a stunning knock of 29-ball 43. All-rounder Krunal Pandya (41 off 22 balls) provided the final flourish to the innings as MI posted a competitive total of 165/4 on the board in their 20 overs.

In reply, CSK never looked in control as they lost their top five for just 75 runs in 12 overs. However, West Indies’ ace all-rounder Dwayne Bravo change the course of the game with his blazing 30-ball 68 as Chennai chased down the target with one ball to spare.

Even though Mumbai lost the game agonizingly, Twitteratis were in awe with the way Markande exhibited his bowling skills in his maiden IPL match in front of the jam-packed Wankhede crowd.

Here are some of the tweets hailing Markande’s super show in his IPL debut match: