India, March 30 -- Mumbai Indians have finally put an end to one of the IPL's oddest long-running quirks. By beating Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, they registered their first opening-match win of an IPL season since April 4, 2012, when they had beaten Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets in Chennai after bowling them out for 112. It is a simple result on the points table. But in the larger story of the franchise, it feels like the closing of an old, improbable circle.

That is because this was never a streak attached to failure in the usual sense. Mumbai did not spend these years drifting in irrelevance. Quite the opposite. Since that last opening-night win in 2012, they built one of the great IPL e...