A lot was made of the relationship between Rising Pune Supergiant teammates Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smithafter the ill-tempered India-Australia series. However, the duo ensured that any tension between them was not visible as they struck a match-winning 58-run partnership for Rising Pune Supergiant in their opening match of the Indian Premier League season 10.

Both batsmen scored half-centuries as Pune chased down Mumbai’s 184/8 with seven wickets to spare. After losing Rahane (60), Smith also shared a 50-run stand with England’s Ben Stokes, who was making his IPL debut. The Englishman did not have the best of starts, however, taking 1/36 with the ball and scoring just 21 with the bat.

Pune made things harder for themselves towards the end, as a seemingly easy equation of 46 from 30 balls became 20 off the last 12. Jasprit Bumrah bowled a great penultimate over, conceding just seven runs and almost getting a wicket but for a dropped catch. Pune needed 13 off the final over and Mumbai sniffed a remarkable comeback win, before Smith dashed their hopes with two big sixes. The Australia captain ended with 84 off 54 balls.

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Tahir makes a statement

Imran Tahir did not have an IPL team a fortnight ago. The world’s top-ranked bowler in Twenty20 Internationals went unsold in the player auction for the 10th edition of the tournament, despite a comparatively low base price of Rs 50 lakh. It took an injury to a fellow overseas player, Australia’s Mitchell Marsh, for RPS to go for the South African leg-spinner.

Tahir, however, had the last laugh as his three wickets in his first game. It wasn’t a great start, as Parthiv Patel swept him for four off his first delivery of the match. But Tahir responded the very next delivery as he bowled the left-hander around the legs, before running off wildly to celebrate in his typical manner. Next to go was Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma, who was probably more done in by the leg-spinner’s pace than the fact that it spun the other way.

Surprising team selections

Earlier, both teams pulled a rabbit out of their hats with their team selections. The Pune pitch looked like a perfect batting wicket, but Mumbai Indians saw something in it to omit off-spinner Harbhajan Singh from their eleven and went with an all-seam attack. Pune, on the other hand, opted to go with two leg-spinners, Tahir and Adam Zampa, along with the part-time tweaks of Rajat Bhatia. Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma further surprised everyone by not walking out to bat with Parthiv Patel at the top of the order, sending England’s Jos Buttler instead.

DRS, where art thou?

Mumbai’s ploy worked, as Buttler went berserk from the very start, hitting his compatriot Ben Stokes for two sixes off consecutive deliveries, one of them a delightful overhead scoop. The wicketkeeper-batsman blasted his way to 38 off 18 balls and looked set for a big score, before Tahir trapped him leg-before to pick up his third wicket. Replays, however, showed a massive bat-pad.

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Parity was restored after the same umpire, S Ravi, did not give Kieron Pollard out leg-before to Tahir when it looked plumb. Hawkeye confirmed it should have been given out. Pune’s former skipper, MS Dhoni, made the T-sign with his hands, and the Decision Review System would have helped his team get the wicket if it was available.

Pandya’s late burst

Pune did well to restrict Mumbai’s scoring and the visitors would have thought they were at least 20 runs behind where they would have liked to be with seven balls to go in the innings, at 148/7. In the next seven deliveries, this is what happened: six, six, six, six, four, six, wide and run out, one bye. Hardik Pandya got 28 of those runs in just five deliveries as Mumbai ended up with 184/8. The all-rounder could just have booked his ticket to the UK for the Champions Trophy with that late burst.

Two great catches and as many drops

This match also had a couple of spectacular catches – one from each team. Mayank Agarwal got rid of the gangerous Kieron Pollard by taking a stunning diving catch at long on. Definitely an early contender for catch of the season. In the second innings, Nitish Rana took a low diving catch that went up for referral, before the third umpire ruled it was clean. Ajinkya Rahane was the batsman and it was another important wicket, after the Indian scored a half-century.

Rana, however, dropped Smith later on at deep square-leg. It was a tough one, but should have been held. Smith was just on 37 at the point. Later on in the innings, Tim Southee dropped a sitter at long on, the batsman being MS Dhoni.