Mumbai Indians made good on their brilliant end-of-season form by thrashing the tournament favourites and regular season table-toppers, Chennai Super Kings, to claim their second IPL title. The win – the second biggest by runs in IPL finals – was the culmination of a spectacular turnaround after Ricky Ponting’s side had begun the season with four defeats on the spin.
This was the perfect Twenty20 performance, with the batsmen attacking throughout, scoring at a rate of more than 10 runs per over and setting an imposing target, and being backed up well by the seamers. Mitchell McClenaghan and Lasith Malinga both impressed, taking three for 25 and two for 25 respectively.
After being put into bat, Mumbai lost a wicket in the very first over with just one run on the board, as Parthiv Patel was run out by a brilliant throw out the back of the hand from Faf du Plessis, but this proved a false dawn amid a nightmare start for the Super Kings. Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai captain, and Lendl Simmons responded with a flurry of boundaries as 39 runs came from the three following overs.
This was as aggressive an approach as any in this year’s competition and Mumbai did not let up. By the innings’ midpoint they were 98 without any further loss, as Simmons passed his half-century in 35 balls with five fours and three sixes.
Sharma moved to his own 50 from 25 balls, but he holed out off the bowling of Dwayne Bravo immediately after reaching the landmark. Better was to come with the very next ball, as Dwayne Smith bowled Simmons for 68, leaving them 125 for three after the 13th over – the first one without a boundary since the very first of the match.
The wickets momentarily halted the Indians’ charge, but with Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard at the crease the boundaries unsurprisingly continued to flow; the 17th over, bowled by Ashish Nehra was plundered for 23 alone. The pair added 71 from 40 balls before the latter failed with an attempted slog over extra cover and holed out for 36.
No team had ever successfully chased 200 or more in an IPL final. Although Chennai kept wickets intact at the top of the order, some marvellous dry bowling from Malinga and McClenaghan in particular meant that the already high required run rate soon spiralled into daunting territory. Just 21 were scored from the first four overs, before Mike Hussey was caught at cover for a painful nine-ball four.
Smith and Suresh Raina continued to soldier on, but were struggling to even lay bat on too many deliveries, let alone find the boundaries required. By the time the 10th over was completed, though they had still only lost the one wicket, 13.6 runs an over were needed.
There was minor cause for celebration for Smith in the next over, when he drove through point to bring up his half-century from 45 balls. But, just as he looked to be finding his rhythm, he was trapped plumb lbw by the excellent Harbhajan Singh for 57.
MS Dhoni, who at this point was probably regretting his decision to put Mumbai in first, promoted himself up the order but seemed helpless to arrest his team’s slide and the ever-increasing size of their task. Harbhajan had Raina stumped for 26 from 19 balls to complete a miserable tournament for the batsman, then Dhoni’s tactic of promoting Bravo failed as the all-rounder was caught off McClenaghan for nine, leaving his team needing a near-enough impossible 91 off of 30 balls.
More than four overs and five wickets remained when Dhoni himself had his stumps rearranged by the excellent Lasith Malinga, but the sense of resignation was etched across the captain’s face.
