Rising Pune Supergiants impressed on their IPL debut as they defeated defending champions Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets in the season-opener of Vivo IPL 2016. After restricting the hosts to a modest 121-8 at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, the debutants knocked off the required runs in 14.4 overs, reports iplt20.com from Mumbai. Set a target of 122, RPS made light work of the chase as their opening pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Faf du Plessis added 78 runs in 9.4 overs. The former was the more aggressive of the two RPS openers, while the latter got stuck into Jasprit Bumrah in particular. The visitors raced to 57 for no loss at the end of the Powerplay overs and thereafter milked the runs, before du Plessis dragged a Harbhajan Singh delivery back onto his stumps; the South African made 34 from 33 balls. Ajinkya Rahane brought up his half-century decorated with plenty of aggressive strokes off 33 balls – his quickest in the IPL, and in the company of Kevin Pietersen (21 from 14 balls) ensured there would be no further damage in the run-chase. Earlier in the evening, MS Dhoni’s midas touch, along with some disciplined bowling on a pitch which wasn’t easy for batting, caused much strife to the Mumbai Indians.
After being given the opportunity to bowl first up in the match, Rising Pune Supergiants reduced the hosts to 37 for four in the first six overs. Ishant Sharma set the tone for the visitors when he dismissed the home team captain Rohit Sharma first ball of the second over. The lanky speedster had his second in two overs when he found the middle peg behind Lendl Simmons; MI were reduced to 29 for 2. Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 121-8 in 20.0 Overs (Harbhajan Singh 45*, Mitchell Marsh 2-21, Ishant Sharma 2-36) lost to Rising Pune Supergiants 126-1 in 14.4 Overs (Ajinkya Rahane 66*, Harbhajan Singh 1-24) by 9 wickets Man of the Match: Ajinkya Rahane, for his unbeaten 42-ball 66.