Mumbai Indians thumped Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs in the final of the eighth edition of the Indian Premier League, to lift the coveted trophy for the second time. The comprehensive victory, thus helped Mumbai Indians join the Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders in the league of multiple times IPL champions.
For the second time in five days, the Mumbai Indians shunted Chennai Super Kings out with a stupendous batting performance. And, for the second time in five days, the bowling unit complemented the batting line-up by tying the fancied Super Kings batsmen down all through the innings, to complete a season of glorious turnaround.
It was indeed fitting for the Mumbai Indians to end the memorable ride at the Eden Gardens, the same venue where their season began on a disastrous note seven weeks ago, which started with a four-match losing spree.
The game didn’t start on as fitting note for the Mumbai Indians, though. Parthiv Patel was run out with an incredible flick off the back of the hand by a diving Faf du Plessis in the opening over. That brought Rohit Sharma to the innings. And the captain of the Mumbai Indians ship then took the game away from the Chennai Super Kings with a whirlwind 119 run partnership in just 67 balls.
Thanks to Parthiv and Simmon’s amazing run at the top of the order, Rohit seldom had an opportunity to bat long in the latter half of the tournament. But, he made more than the most of batting at his favourite ground. After playing a couple of dot balls, the third ball he faced off namesake Mohit Sharma, was glided over the third-man for a six. And the next three balls included two rocket boundaries.
That set the pace for the innings and Rohit followed it up with back-to-back fours, off Ashish Nehra in the third over. Spin was introduced as early in the fourth over but Lendl Simmons foiled the plan by hitting R Ashwin for a boundary and a six.
The assault continued, and Mumbai Indians had raced to 61 for one at the end of the fielding restrictions, with the last two balls of the Powerplay, bowled by left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, being hoicked for a four and a six by Simmons.
Rohit, who during the knock became only the second batsman to score 500 runs against Chennai Super Kings in IPL, misread a slower one from Dwayne Bravo the ball after completing his third fifty of the season. And the next ball, Dwayne Smith, bowling for the first time in the tournament, got the other prize scalp of Simmons.
That meant Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard could get a sighter before going berserk, as they always have, at the death. Pollard’s 23-run over off Nehra, meant that Mumbai Indians crossed the 200-run mark.
To defend such a gargantuan total, all that the Mumbai Indians required was to get off to a good start. And once the pace bowlers had stifled the Super Kings to 31 for one at the end of the Powerplay, the victory was all but assured. The final nail in the coffin came in the 16th over when Lasith Malinga cleaned up Dhoni, on whom relied the miniscule hopes of Super Kings.
That gave way to a huge round of celebrations in the Mumbai Indians camp. And the party would continue all through the night not just at the team hotel in Kolkata but, also in the homes and on the streets all over the world, especially in Mumbai, by all the Paltan.
