Classy Rohit, precise Bumrah combine to break Mumbai's opening jinx

For Mumbai Indians' IPL campaign this season, Hardik Pandya's rallying cry has been 'Apna Time Aayega'—our time will come. The franchise had gone five years without a title and hadn't won their opening game for 13 seasons. On Sunday, their time finally arrived.

It required a record-breaking chase for Mumbai Indians to pull it off. Chasing 220-plus is no picnic—it has been achieved only five times in 18 seasons of the IPL—but Pandya's side got it done with power and panache against Kolkata Knight Riders to break their 13-year opening-game jinx.

"Obviously, it's been a long wait. 13 years is a very long time. Every time we have come, we have wanted to win and start the season with a high. Very glad, the whole group is very glad that we were finally able to do it," said skipper Pandya. "Yeah, it's brilliant," added coach Mahela Jayawardene.

It was a statement win—not just in the result, but in the manner of it. Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah made the difference.

Rohit, once famously called the Rolls Royce of batting, has lately been the talk of the circuit for his weight loss and leaner frame. Whether he would convert that fitness transformation into performance was the talking point. He answered it in style: a 38-ball 78 (4 fours, 6 sixes) at a strike rate of 205. Once he got going, there was no stopping him.

"It's a treat. I've seen batters play some terrific shots. But whenever I've seen Ro play some shots, I think it opens everyone's mouth. So, nothing short of exceptional, nothing short of brilliant. And I'm so, so happy that Rohit played his knock," Pandya said.

Having retired from two international formats and last played a T20 about 10 months ago, there were questions over his transition. But Rohit looked as if he was coming straight off the T20 World Cup. His signature pull shots were as imperious as ever and his timing remained majestic.

"He's freeing himself up. He's thinking much calmer. He's not the leader, so there's less pressure on him. This happens—it happened to me as well in my last few years. You practise less, but your muscle memory works. You just go with the flow. You know what the bowlers are trying to do. When you're in that mode, you have that freedom, which we noticed in Rohit in the last couple of years. We've encouraged him to go and do that. The rest of the team is backing him to do that. I'm quite happy about it," said Jayawardene.

Jayawardene added that Rohit was present from day one of the pre-season camp. "I think after so many years, I've had him from day one of the camp. He played some really good practice games. We had a lot of simulations for him, especially to get him going. I was quite happy with the way he was hitting the ball."

Rohit this season is all about desire, hunger and determination—and it showed. He hasn't had a 500-run year since 2013, but hitting the sweet spot in the very first match in dominating fashion, the 500-run mark should not be difficult to breach.

If Rohit was all class and finesse, Bumrah was all force, intensity and precision. The MI spearhead seemed to relive the World Cup semi-final against England, when he turned the match on its head in his final overs. On Sunday, he produced a similar effort, preventing the Knight Riders from racing to a 240-plus total.

His well-calibrated accuracy with yorkers, full-length and slower deliveries proved too much. KKR had to settle for 220 after looking set for at least 20 more. His second over—the 12th of the innings—went for just five runs at a time when KKR had a blazing start. The momentum shift began there, with Ajinkya Rahane unable to force the pace.

After reaching 50 off 27 balls, the Knight Riders skipper managed just 17 from his next 13, and at one stage was eight off 10 deliveries. The stutter was engineered by Bumrah, who conceded only eight runs in his third over (the 18th) and a further 10 in the final over to put the brakes on KKR's charge. His 0 for 34 was far more valuable than it might appear.

Rahane paid tribute to the MI pacer: "We thought we batted really well. We were 15-20 runs short and probably the difference was Bumrah. Without Bumrah, we would have easily got 230-240 on this wicket."