Mumbai Indians overcame a bunch of nerves to script a narrow victory by a margin of 1-run over Rising Pune Supergiant in a nail-biting final to complete a triad of IPL trophies.
The build-up that led to the finals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad promised an exciting thriller. And, it turned out to be one indeed! It was the classic case of two relentless sides not giving an inch to each other.
Backed by some really shrewd bowling display from Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Johnson, Mumbai Indians successfully defended a low total of 129/8 to hand their regional rivals a stinging loss. Click Hare For mi vs rps final match prediction
For a large part of the match, it seemed like the jinx followed Mumbai Indians to the final. After electing to bat first, MI suffered a terrible batting collapse. An impressive opening spell from Jaydev Unadkat and economical spells from Washington Sundar choked the air out of the Mi line-up.
At one point, they looked set for a sub-100 with the scoreboard reading 79/7. However, Krunal Pandya led a heroic fightback hitting 47 from just 38 deliveries to take his side to a total which was fighting, to say the least.
The target was still small but the slow nature of the wicket posed a great threat. It was also was the only advantage Rohit Sharma and his bowling attack had to exploit.
Eventually, as it turned out, the MI bowlers ended up bowling fantastic spells under pressure and taking true benefits of the playing conditions to restrict Pune for 128/6 after 20 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane – 7/10
Ajinkya Rahane did most of the run scoring at the start of the innings. After experiencing a batting failure, MI responded with an impressive bowling show. The early loss of Tripathi and Smith’s struggle to get going proved to beneficial for the bowling side. However, they were unable to put Pune to the corner as Rahane ensured the run flow remains smooth. A big knock looked on cards but he was unable to preserve his wicket till the end and was dismissed in the 12th over with 44 runs off 38 deliveries to his name.