As Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant drew curtains on the tenth edition of the IPL, it was the Rohit Sharma-led side which prevailed in the thrilling ‘Maharashtra Derby’ at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in Hyderabad and thereby became the first team to lift the IPL title thrice. Courtesy of a clinical bowling performance and some decisive batting Mumbai Indians won the match by just 1 run.
After winning the toss Rohit Sharma chose to bat first on a slow Hyderabad wicket. His decision proved right as the pitch became slower as the match progressed and batting became difficult. Chasing 130 to win, RPS were in the hunt until the last over when Mitchell Johnson bowled tightly and defended 11 of the last over.
MI have been in incredible form this season and they continued to show that in the finals. While the batting has been their strong point, it was the bowlers who put up a spirited performance to guide MI to a victory. Mitchell Johnson was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/26. He was ably supported by Jasprit Bumrah.
Meanwhile, the shot selection from some of the Pune batsman left a lot to be desired. Only Steve Smith stood out with a gritty 51 from 50 balls which featured two fours and two sixes. None of the other batsmen gave him company in the middle and frequent wickets only increased the pressure on his side. While Pune did not lose wickets at regular intervals, what they failed to do was take the attack to the opposition. None of the batsmen took the attack to the bowlers and the average strike of the batters hovered around 100.
Earlier, the final came alight thanks to some fireworks from the RPS bowlers. Unadkat again started off on a dream note as he scalped Parthiv and Simmons in the same over leaving Mumbai at 8/2. While Washington Sundar slipped in two overs of off-spin for just six runs. At one stage Mumbai were 79/7 when Krunal Pandya and Mitchell Johnson got together and added 50 for the eighth wicket. However, a surge at the end saw Mumbai hit 48 runs in the last 5 overs. At the end, Mumbai’s scorecard read 129/8.
At the half stage, it did seem like RPS had the upper hand but MI scripted a dramatic turnaround to win their third IPL title.
-Indian Express
