Mumbai Indians’ poor record in their opening fixture of the season continues. The last time they won their first match of an IPL season was in 2012, when they beat Chennai Super Kings in Chennai. The venue and the opponents were the same, but on Sunday Mumbai lost by four wickets.

Mumbai, without regular captain Hardik Pandya, lost former captain Rohit Sharma in the very first over of the game. They could never really bail themselves out of trouble thereafter, limping their way to 155/9 after being put in.

For the Super Kings, Ruturaj Gaikwad (53 off 26 balls) and opener Rachin Ravindra (65 not out off 45 balls) complemented the bowling performances of Khaleel Ahmed (3/29) and Noor Ahmad (4/18) as the home team won with five balls remaining.

Captain’s knock

Not that MI went down without a fight. Impact Player Vignesh Puthur (3/32), a Malappuram-born left-arm wrist-spinner, struck thrice in quick succession.

But despite the mini-collapse, the Super Kings were never really under pressure, thanks to the bold approach of skipper Gaikwad, who hit six boundaries and three maximums to keep the required run rate under check.

On a tricky, two-paced surface, Gaikwad’s strike rate of 203.84 was massive.

Precious spell

During their time with the bat, MI, after the early setbacks, crawled back into the game with a steady stand between stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma. But Noor (4/18) broke the 51-run stand. The left-arm wrist spinner first got Surya stumped. Then he dismissing IPL debutant Robin Minz, before picking up the vital scalp of Tilak too. For his fourth, Noor cleaned up Naman Dhir.

Khaleel burst

It was Khaleel who rocked MI early.

With wickets of Rohit, who was forced into a false shot by Khaleel’s subtle swing, and Ryan Rickelton, who dragged it back onto his stumps, the left-arm pacer laid the foundation for Super Kings’ win.

Mumbai Indians

R. Sharma c Dube b Khaleel 0R. Rickelton b Khaleel 13W. Jacks c Dube b Ashwin 11S. Yadav st Dhoni b Noor 29T. Varma lbw Noor 31R. Minz c Jadeja b Noor 3N. Dhir b Noor 17M. Santner lbw Ellis 11D. Chahar not out 28T. Boult c Gaikwad b Khaleel 1S. Raju not out 1Extras (b-4, lb-1, nb-1, w-4) 10Total (9 wickets, 20 overs) 155Fall of wickets: 1/0, 2/21, 3/36, 4/87, 5/95, 6/96, 7/118, 8/128, 9/141Bowling: Khaleel 4-0-29-3; Curran 1-0-13-0; Ellis 4-0-38-1; Ashwin 4-0-31-1; Jadeja 3-0-21-0; Noor 4-0-18-4

IP: Vignesh Puthur for Rohit Sharma

Super Kings

R. Ravindra not out 65R. Tripathi c Rickelton b Chahar 2R. Gaikwad c Jacks b Puthur 53S. Dube c Tilak b Puthur 9D. Hooda c Raju b Puthur 3S. Curran b Jacks 4R. Jadeja run out 17MS Dhoni not out 0Extras (w-5) 5Total (6 wickets, 19.1 overs) 158Fall of wickets: 1/11, 2/78, 3/95, 4/107, 5/116, 6/152Bowling: Boult 3-0-27-0; Chahar 2-0-18-1; Raju 1-0-13-0; Santner 2.1-0-24-0; Jacks 4-0-32-1; Puthur 4-0-32-3; Dhir 3-0-12-0

IP: Rahul Tripathi for Khaleel Ahmed

CSK won by 4 wicketsMoM: Noor Ahmad

(IP: Impact Player)