The Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated the Mumbai Indians (MI) by four wickets in their respective opening games of the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) season at the Cricket Club of India’s (CCI) Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
the five-time champions MI franchise were defeated by Rishabh Pant & Co. by four wickets in defence of a challenging 178.
The DC camp rode on Kuldeep Yadav’s 3 for 18 as MI posted 177-5 thanks to skipper Rohit (41) and Ishan Kishan’s 48-ball 81 not out.
In response, the Delhi camp lost Prithvi Shaw and Tim Seifert after promising starts, while the big guns such as Pant and Rovman Powell died quickly. At 72 for 5, few would have given the DC camp a chance.
But Axar Patel’s 17-ball 38*, Lalit Yadav’s 38-ball 48*, and Shardul Thakur’s 11-ball 22 propelled DC to a stunning four-wicket win.
For the majority of DC’s innings, it appeared that MI were on their way to a comfortable victory, only for the match to be turned on its head in the final overs.
With this defeat, the five-time champions created an unwanted record by losing their opening game of the season for the 10th consecutive season.
MI’s losing streak in the first game of the IPL season has now reached 3844 days, thanks to the defeat against the Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals. The last time MI won their first game in a cash-rich league was in 2012, when they defeated the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
In fact, Harbhajan Singh was MI’s captain at the time. The streak began in 2013, when the Mumbai-based franchise was defeated by Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, captained by Ricky Ponting.
MI have never won their first game in the competition since Rohit Sharma took over as captain in the middle of the 2013 season.
MI did not have a single IPL title to their name the last time they won the first game of the competition. Since then, they have won 5 titles and become the league’s most successful side.
Captain Rohit speaks:
“I thought it was a good score. It didn’t look like that kind of a pitch where you could get 170-plus at the start. But we played really well in the middle and finished off really well as well. Good score on the board, it’s just that we didn’t bowl according to the plans,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Whether it’s the first game or last game, we want to try and win”
“(Not won the opening IPL match since 2012?) Honestly, that’s never been the talk. We always come prepared, whether it’s the first game or last game, we want to try and win every game.“
“But we made some mistakes on the field which didn’t go according to plans. But those things can happen. We just need to keep it tight within the group. Disappointed, but it’s not the end,” Rohit added.
