10 Best moments of IPL 2017

Mumbai Indians were crowned champions on Sunday night when they miraculously won the finals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad as they defeated RPS by 1 run. It was a fantastic team effort by Mumbai Indians who stuck to their task in the field and raised the intensity during RPS’s chase. This win summed the season up for MI as they repeatedly found players who raised their hand up during crunch situations. RPS would be ruing the missed opportunity but they must be proud of the way they played in the entire tournament. After losing three out of their first four games, they came back strongly to get into the finals. The loss will be definitely hurting at the moment but the players can only do much to change the result now. The tenth edition of the IPL was again very successful and widely followed by a lot of people not just in India but overseas as well. There were some thrilling contests this year and in the end, it was Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai who held their nerve in the finals to register a come-from-behind win. A lot of fine young talents emerged this year with Basil Thampi being the best of the lot as he won the emerging player’s award this season. A 45-day long tournament calls to revisit the ten best moments of the IPL this year which are listed as follows: 1. Dhoni turns the clock back: MS Dhoni of Rising Pune Supergiant in action. (Photo: IANS) Dhoni was under enormous pressure this year purely due to the fact that he was axed from the captainship at the start of the season. When that happens, a cricketer is always under pressure to come good as a playing member of the XI. Dhoni had a mixed season as he had just one good knock – 61* against SRH at home. Apart from that innings, where he guided his team home in a tensed chase, there weren’t any particular contributions from the former India captain. He decided to make a telling contribution in the 1st Qualifier when he smashed the Mumbai Indians bowlers all around the park to remain unbeaten on 40. The magnitude of his knock goes a long way. RPS were struggling when he came out to bat but Dhoni ensured that the team total crossed 160, which was eventually too much for MI to chase. Dhoni faced just 26 balls and hit five sixes, four of which came in the last 8 balls he faced. It was vintage Dhoni on display as he collected 41 runs in the last two overs to get momentum behind RPS. 2. Cricketers playing it in the right spirit (Photo Source: Twitter) It is often said that every sportsman should play hard but play within the spirit of the game. The cricket this year was pleasing to watch as it was indeed played in the right spirit. It was heartening to see Suresh Raina consoling youngster Rishabh Pant when he was devastated after being out for 97. Pant batted extremely well on the night but couldn’t get to the three-figure mark which really hurt the 19-year old Pant. Hashim Amla is known to be a great ambassador of the game and he displayed that this year. Batting against RCB, Amla got a feather touch to the ball which was taken by the keeper. Nobody appealed but Amla decided to walk. This was refreshing to see in today’s day and age as people have stopped the practice of walking. But Amla showed that he is the fair play ambassador of the game. MS Dhoni did something similar except that this time players appealed but Dhoni decided to walk even before the umpire gave his decision as he knew that he had edged it back to the keeper off the bowling of Kuldeep Yadav against KKR at the Eden Gardens. 3. Mumbai Indians win title courtesy an ‘aunty’ Prayer Aunty. (Photo Source: Twitter) The final game of the IPL was a heart-stopping one as the fortunes of both sides swung like a pendulum. The game, with should have been finished by the 18th or 19th over, had gone down to the wire as RPS stuttered during the latter half of the chase. Smith gave their team a good chance of winning it by smashing Bumrah for a six over long-off in the penultimate over. His strike meant that RPS needed 11 of the final over, which is very gettable in the T20 format. Tiwary then struck a boundary on the first ball of the over to get the equation down to just 7 off 5 balls. Johnson made a good comeback as he sent back Tiwary the next ball. With 7 needed off 4 and Smith on strike, the odds very heavily in RPS’s favour. In an attempt to capture the nervousness amongst the crowd, the cameras shifted towards a certain section of the VIP box where Mumbai Indians supporters were sitting. Amongst them, an old lady, who was later referred to as ‘aunty’ by many fans on Twitter, was seen folding her hands and praying for Mumbai’s win whilst closing her eyes. The live action returned and Smith hit one straight to Rayudu at deep cover to swing the game back in Mumbai’s favour. Twitterati was quick to acknowledge ‘Aunty’s’ contributions in Mumbai’s third title win. 4. Jasprit Bumrah’s super over Jasprit Bumrah of Mumbai Indians. (Photo: Dhananjay TK/IANS) There was just one tied game between Gujarat Lions and Mumbai Indians which had to be decided by super over this year. Jasprit Bumrah delivered an ice-cool over to hand Mumbai a 5-run win. Defending just 12 runs, Bumrah overstepped the first ball of the over to gift a free hit to the Lions. Bumrah had his work cut out as he was up against Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch, two terrific strikers of the cricket ball. After the fatal error, Bumrah bowled pinpoint yorkers to concede just 6 runs in the over, 4 of which came from the bat. Even the experience of McCullum wasn’t good enough against an accurate Bumrah who gave away just 1 run off 3 balls to the former Kiwi captain. Bumrah was outstanding all season with his yorkers and more often than not delivered for his team during critical junctures. 5. Hashim Amla lights up the IPL with his finesse Hashim Amla of Kings XI Punjab celebrates his century. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS) Amla turned up for Kings XI Punjab this year and was in red hot form. The South African ended the IPL with 420 runs in 10 innings at 60 runs an innings with a strike rate of 145.83. These numbers accentuate the stark contrast of popular conception of him not being suitable for the shortest format. Amla showed that if you have good basics then you could excel in the slam-bang version of the game too. He scored 2 hundreds and 2 half-centuries this year. While Punjab won on both occasions when he scored half centuries, they lost whenever Amla registered triple figures. It was sad to see that both of his centuries were scored in vain as his side failed to get across the line. 6. Imran Tahir vindicates his selection as he sets off in grand celebration Imran Tahir of Rising Pune Supergiant celebrates fall of a wicket. (Photo: IANS) Tahir picked a 5-wicket haul in a t20 game for South Africa just three days before the IPL auctions and people expected him to go for big bucks this year. He surprisingly remained unsold during the auctions which must have hurt this Proteas bowler. He was a late inclusion in the RPS side and was included in the XI to play their first game against Mumbai Indians. The leg-spinner immediately made a big impact as he picked Parthiv Patel’s wicket off the second ball he bowled in the tournament. In the next over, he was seen running around celebrating the wickets of Jos Butler and Rohit Sharma, both dismissed off googlies in the same over. His 3/28 helped RPS restrict Mumbai to 184 for 8 as they once looked good to break the 200-run barrier. With a stellar performance, Tahir vindicated his selection by RPS. His over-the-top celebrations always brought smiles on the faces of the viewers. 7. Dhoni foxes Pollard yet again Steve Smith and MS Dhoni. (Photo Source: Twitter) Mumbai struggled to get going in the final as they were 56/4 when Pollard took guard. He showed intent from ball one as he smacked Adam Zampa for a six over long-off. Dhoni, being an astute reader of the game, immediately asked the long-off fielder to stand straighter, almost behind the bowler’s arm and well within the eye-line of Pollard. Interestingly, Dhoni had applied the same tactic against Pollard in the finals of 2010 when Mumbai played CSK. On that occasion, the mid-off fielder was asked to stand straight and Pollard hit it back down his throat. Pollard noticed the field change and went for glory again two balls later. He yet again fell to Dhoni’s master move as he did not time it as well as he would have wanted and the straight long off fielder took an easy catch to send the big man back to the pavilion. 8. Dravid all smiles after Delhi chased down 209 (Photo Source: Twitter) Rahul Dravid is usually intense and a studious character but even he was all smiles when two young guns of Delhi – Samson and Rishabh Pant – made light weight of the 209-run target set by Gujarat Lions. Both were involved in a 143-run stand for the second wicket which came of just 63 balls. Samson perished for a 31-ball 61 but Pant carried the fight on. The Delhi dasher was eventually dismissed for 97 which came off just 43 balls. Both batsmen got a standing ovation from Rahul Dravid for their serene knocks which allowed Delhi to chase down the big target in a canter. Shreyas Iyer and Corey Anderson finished the game for Delhi with 15 balls to spare. Dravid was delighted to get the win as he was seen jubilant after the winning runs were hit. 9. Rahul Tripathi makes a name for himself Rahul Tripathi of Rising Pune Supergiant. (Photo: IANS) Rahul Tripathi was the lone cricketer in the franchise of RPS who hailed from Pune. He was promoted to open the innings by the RPS think-tank and the youngster got his side off to flying starts. Tripathi’s big moment came against KKR at the Eden Gardens. Set a target of 156 to chase, big guns Smith and Rahane were back early in the pavilion. Tripathi then shepherded the chase along. Kuldeep was introduced by Gambhir and the chinaman bowled tidily in his first over. In the second over, Yadav was taken to the cleaners by Tripathi as the opener struck Yadav for three consecutive sixes. It was magnificent batting against a top quality side by an unheralded player. His knock of 93, which included 7 towering sixes, helped RPS win the game. Rahul Tripathi had arrived at the big stage. 10. Basil Thampi yorks Chris Gayle Basil Thampi. (Photo Source: Twitter) Hailing from Kerala, Thampi bowled splendidly this year to become the emerging player of the season. He bowled with pace and ran in every time he was given the ball by his skipper Raina. He impressed many with his ability to deliver the perfect yorkers in pressure situations. Playing against RCB, Thampi was given the responsibility to bowl against Gayle and Kohli, who were going great guns batting on 75 and 41 respectively. Seeing both batsmen of high quality going nicely about their business, Thampi ran in to deliver three back-to-back yorkers to Chris Gayle, the third one hitting the stumps of the big man from Jamaica. It is always a terrific sight to watch a fast bowler shattering the stumps of a T20 dasher and this was no different. Gayle was looking dangerous which did not bother Thampi as he delivered an immaculate yorker to end Gayle’s entertaining innings of 77 from 38 balls.

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10 Best moments of IPL 2017

IPL 2017 never had a dull moment during 45 days of action packed cricket. We bring you the 10 best moments of the tournament.

8. Dravid all smiles after Delhi chased down 209

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