The final of the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League was special for numerous reasons. The game not only saw two teams from the same state competing for the coveted trophy for the first time but also it was the last IPL game for the Rising Pune Supergiant franchise as their two year contract comes to an end at the end of this season. Rising Pune Supergiants was higher on confidence as they had already beaten the Mumbai Indians thrice earlier this season.
Fortune kicked off well for the Indians as they won the toss and chose to bat. Mumbai Indians have won both their IPL trophies batting first. But things didn’t fall in place as expected and the top order disappointingly collapsed. They could just manage to put up 129 runs on the board in 20 overs. With the likes of the explosive Rahul Tripathi, and Steve Smith and ever calm Ajinkya Rahane and MS Dhoni, the target seemed to be a cakewalk for the Supergiant.
Fortunately, MI struck early in the quest of staying in the contest with Bumrah hunting down Tripathi in his very first over. The skipper Steven Smith and Ajinkya Rahane then took charge and steadily built the partnership. They held a strong grip on the game till these two were batting. Then Rahane departed and the Indians could see a ray of hope, but they still had a mountain to climb with MS Dhoni joining the well set Steve Smith. While chasing a small total, you have the freedom of playing without taking any risks but at the same time, you shouldn’t let the pressure creep up. Although Steve Smith scored a half-century, he played slower than normal in the starting and middle over, which eventually piled up too much for the end. This transferred the pressure from Mumbai Indians to the Supergiant.
It seemed as if Steve Smith was too influenced by the finishing style of MS Dhoni and wanted to take the case right until the end.
MS Dhoni couldn’t take the team to the finish as he usually does, which meant that Smith had, even more, to do now. The skyrocketing required run rate and the pressure of playing in an IPL final for the first time got the better of him. He couldn’t hold his nerves and gave away his wicket, and potentially the title.
A match that kept all of us right at the edge of our seats till the last ball. A nail-biting contest which the Mumbai Indians won by 1 run. They exhibited enormous perseverance and dedication, and no one can take away this victory from them, but the story could have been different had the Supergiant batting line up calculated their innings better.
Contributed by Utkarsh Sinha
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