Tristan Stubbs made a winning start to his IPL career with the Mumbai Indians despite being dismissed for a two-ball duck.

The 21-year-old South African, who came in at No 5 for Mumbai, missed a juicy full toss with the first ball he faced from Mukesh Choudhary and was then trapped lbw after being beaten by a back-of-a-length delivery that clocked 135km/h.

While that left Mumbai struggling at 33-4 after 4.5 overs, they were able to reach their target of 98 with five wickets in hand and 31 balls remaining.

Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl before Australian pacer Daniel Sams ripped through Chennai’s top order in the powerplay.

Fellow Australian Riley Meredith and Jasprit Bumrah picked up one wicket each to leave the opposition reeling at 29-5 in the sixth over.

New Zealander Devon Conway and Moeen Ali were out for a duck while opener Ruturaj Gaikwad scored seven.

Chennai skipper MS Dhoni tried to put some resistance with his unbeaten 36 but failed to pile up runs as he kept losing his teammates at regular intervals.

Kumar Kartikeya removed West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo for 12, followed by Simarjeet Singh’s wicket in the same over.

Kumar returned figures of 2-22. Meredith bagged two wickets while Ramandeep Singh and Bumrah took one each.

Mumbai also stuttered in the powerplay.

Opener Ishan Kishan scored six while Sharma hit four fours to reach 18 before he was caught behind by Dhoni off Singh. Sams was trapped lbw by Mukesh Choudhary which was followed by Stubbs’ dismissal.

But Tilak Varma and Hrithik Shokeen kept the scoreboard ticking before Shokeen fell to Ali for 18. Varma scored an unbeaten 34 while Tim David made a quick 16 off seven balls.

Choudhary bagged 3-23 in his four overs while Singh and Ali took one wicket each.

© Agence France-Presse