Chennai Super Kings (CSK) faced Mumbai Indians (MI) in the first game of IPL 2020 and managed to beat their arch rivals quite convincingly by 5 wickets.
The two experienced players Ambati Rayudu and Faf du Plessis made crucial contributions for CSK, while the youngster Sam Curran also played a game changing cameo towards the end to guide the 3-time champions over the line in the first game of their campaign.
This was the sixth time that CSK featured in the opening game of the IPL. They played the opening game of the IPL five times before in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Out of the five opening fixtures they played in the IPL before, CSK emerged on the winning side thrice in 2011, 2018 and 2019.
Let’s have a look how CSK’s campaign turned out whenever they won the opening game of the IPL –
IPL 2011
CSK faced KKR in the opening game of IPL 2011 and beat them by a slender margin of 2 runs. Batting first on a fairly slow Chepauk pitch, CSK managed to get to a respectable total of 153 and they restricted KKR to just 151 to get off to a winning start to their campaign.
CSK then went on to qualify for the playoffs by winning 9 out of their 14 games in the group stage and they then cruised to the final as well by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in qualifier 1.
CSK, incidentally, faced RCB in the final again as RCB qualified for the final by winning qualifier 2. However the result of the final was the same as qualifier 1 as CSK once again toppled RCB and won the IPL title for the second time in a row.
IPL 2018
IPL 2018 was the season where CSK returned to the IPL after a ban of 2 years and they made a telling statement straightaway as they beat the reigning champions Mumbai Indians in the first game of the tournament, thanks to Dwayne Bravo’s heroics who virtually carried the team to victory from the brink of defeat.
After winning the opening game of IPL in 2018, CSK was one of the dominating teams in the group stage again as they finished at no. 2 in the table with 9 wins and 5 victories. CSK, thereafter, beat the table toppers SRH in qualifier 1 to reach the final of the IPL for the 6th time in their history.
As it happened in IPL 2011, CSK was again facing the same team in the final whom they had beaten in qualifier 1. However, they didn’t have any issues in replicating their performance of qualifier 1 as they beat SRH for the second time in the knockouts to lift their third IPL trophy.
IPL 2019
CSK was up against their south Indian rivals RCB in the first game of IPL 2019 and it turned out to be a very low scoring game as RCB got bundled out for less than 100 and CSK chased it down without too much of discomfort.
Co-incidentally, after their victory in the first game of the IPL, CSK once again finished the preliminary round with 18 points as they won 9 of their games.
However, the only difference was that they couldn’t win the final of the tournament this time around as their arch-rivals Mumbai Indians beat them by just 1 run in the final to clinch the IPL for the 4th time.
