Mumbai Indians finally stopped the ‘rise’ of the Rising Pune Supergiant and also overcame their jinx against their local opponents as they sneaked past them by just a solitary run to clinch the IPL trophy. With this win, Mumbai Indians have now become the only team in the history of the competition to have won the championship three times.
Batting first, Mumbai didn’t have the best of starts as openers Lendl Simmons ( 3) and Parthiv Patel were sent back to the hut pretty early on in the innings. Skipper Rohit Sharma then came out and made 24 but he didn’t get much support from the other batters of his team. Krunal Pandya was the best batsman for the Mumbai Indians as he scored a crucial 47 of 38 balls as Mumbai ended their innings on a feeble looking 129/8. For Pune, Jaydev Unadkat was the best bowler as he snared two wickets giving away just 19 runs in his four overs. Adam Zampa and Dan Christian too took two wickets each.
But, the two time champs weren’t going to let this slip away easily and lose yet another game to the Rising Pune Supergiant side this year. If the batsmen failed to make a mark, the bowling and fielding did.
Steve Smith (51) played an anchor’s role in the chase as all the other batsmen around him, other than Ajinkya Rahane (44) fell cheaply. He scored a half-century but the last over from Mitchell Johnson was spectacular in which he got both the wickets of Smith and Manoj Tiwary (7).
The dismissal of the Smith more or less sealed the deal as Mumbai fans started rejoicing in jubilation.
Mumbai, after so many hard fought have matches have finally got the ultimate reward. Also they finally beat Pune, and did it when it mattered the most. Congratulations Mumbai Indians!
Brief scores-
Mumbai Indians 129/8 (Krunal Pandya 47, Rohit Sharma 24 ; Jaydev Unadkat 2/19) beat Rising Pune Supergiant 128/6 ( Steve Smith 51, Ajinkya Rahane 44; Mitchell Johnson 3/26) by one run.
-Kolkata Bureau