Abu Dhabi: In the opening match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, defending champions Mumbai Indians set a target of 163 runs for last year's runners-up Chennai Super Kings here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Saturday. Saurabh Tiwary was the highest scorer for MI with 42 runs. Lungi Ngidi picked up three wickets.
Earlier, Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and invited Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians to bat first in the repeat of last edition's final in which MI defeated CSK by 1 run to win their fourth IPL title.
The opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock added 46 runs from the first wicket. Piyush Chawla gave CSK the first breakthrough dismissing MI captain Rohit Sharma for 12.
de Kock played quintessential 33 runs knock off 20 balls before being caught at the long-off boundary by Shane Watson off the bowling of Sam Curran. de Kock hit five boundaries.
Later burly Saurabh Tiwary played 42 runs innings to help MI scoreboard ticking. Tiwary designed his innings with three boundaries and a six.
However, dismissal of Tiwary and Hardik Pandya in the 15th and 17th over slowed down MI innings. Ravindra Jadeja was the bowler on both occasions.
Later Ngidi added salt to the wound scalping the wickets of Keiron Pollard, Krunal Pandya and James Pattinson in quick session. Deepak Chahar also took two wickets. But he seemed to have suffered a niggle while castling Trent Boult in the first ball of the 20th over.
At the end of 20 overs, MI put up 163 runs on the scoreboard losing 9 wickets.
With this match, Dhoni made his comeback to competitive cricket after almost one and a half year hiatus. Dhoni last played in the 2019 World Cup in July when India lost to New Zealand in the semifinal.
IPL, originally slated to start on March 29, had to be paused in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. After much deliberations, BCCI finally decided to host it in the UAE.
The 13th edition of IPL is a 53-day tournament. Over the next two months, 60 matches will be played across the three venues viz. Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
