Twitter Reactions: Supergiants start their IPL campaign with a comprehensive win over MI

The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai was full again to its capacity a week after they walked back with broken hearts after the Indian team lost the semi-final contest to West Indies, but this time, they were out there supporting the home team Mumbai Indians. It was a Maharashtra derby game as MI took on IPL debutants Rising Pune Supergiants in the opening encounter of the 9th edition of the league. Rohit Sharma won the toss and surprisingly decided to bat first while MS Dhoni was quite happy chasing since it has always given him the psychological feeling of being in control of the game.

The decision soon turned against Rohit as he was out lbw to an incoming Ishant Sharma delivery. Ishant bowled really good lines though delivered a few loose balls in his first three overs but ran in with a lot of intent and was rewarded with a couple of wickets. Dhoni got in Mitchell Marsh, Rajat Bhatia, and Ravichandran Ashwin at different stages in the innings and all three of them picked a wicket on the very first ball of their spells.

Murugan Ashwin the much talked about guy at the auctions finally had the ball in his hands and impressed most with his leg-spins, he also tasted instant success with the wicket of Shreyas Gopal in his very first over. MI really looked out of sorts and no batsman cared to price his wicket. It was Harbhajan Singh’s unbeaten 45 that got Mumbai to the total of 121 in their 20 overs.

In reply, RPS were clinical and very professional Ajinkya Rahane was at his fluent best, hitting quality shots, though Faf du Plessis looked a little dodgy at the start managed to add 78 runs with Rahane for the opening partnership. They lost just one wicket in the process and that of du Plessis while the Mumbai boy got to his half-century and saw them through with Kevin Pietersen for company.

Here is how Twitter reacted to Pune’s opening victory and another poor start from MI:

https://twitter.com/AltCricket/status/718854580684136448

How did the match pan out? – IPL 9 Match 1 MI v RPSG: Live social feeds