Twitter Reactions: Mumbai Indians win by a run to lift their record 4th title

Malinga, despite having a bad day, did it for Mumbai Indians in a heart-wrenching thriller.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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2 Min Read

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Mumbai Indians. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)

Wow!! What an Indian Premier League (IPL) final! The El Classico finally lived up to its billing. It was a roller-coaster ride throughout the game and both the teams looked out of the game at some point in the second innings. But Shane Watson first did it for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and then Jasprit Bumrah kept doing it for Mumbai Indians (MI). It eventually came down to Lasith Malinga, after having a bad day, who won the game sensationally for them as MI clinched the title for the record fourth time.

It was a tricky chase for the Men in Yellow but Faf du Plessis took the attack to the opposition. He raced away to 26 smashing Krunal Pandya for 14 runs in three balls but got stumped to him in the same over. Shane Watson then took the mantle to score runs and got a few runs as CSK got 53 runs in the powerplay.

Then came the most exhilarating period of play which was filled with drama. First Suresh Raina was given out after he awkwardly ducked to a Mitch McClenaghan bouncer. But he took the review and stunningly, the ultra-edge didn’t show any deflection only to overturn the decision. He soon got out to Rahul Chahar and then Jasprit Bumrah bounced out Ambati Rayudu.

MS Dhoni walked out to the middle as MI were making a comeback in the match. He tried to sneak an extra run off the overthrow and Ishan Kishan managed a direct hit as the matter went to the third umpire. The replays left everyone confused and it took almost 10 minutes for Nigel Llong, the TV umpire to adjudge CSK skipper out and this is where the game was in the balance again with CSK needing 65 runs off the last six overs.

Lasith Malinga was taken away for 20 runs in the 16th over by Shane Watson as the Australian also got to his half-century. Watson’s luck struck for the third time on the day as Rahul Chahar dropped him in the next over. It was a dolly but the youngster couldn’t hold on to his nerves to give a lifeline to Watson, rather CSK. It came down to 38 off the last three overs thanks to Bumrah again who conceded only four runs.

With Malinga going for runs, Rohit Sharma gambled on Krunal Pandya in front of Watson in the 18th over and the latter literally got stuck into the left-arm spinner. He smashed Pandya for three back-to-back sixes to make his team the favourites. A total of 20 runs were scored but Bumrah, the champion, sent back Bravo in the penultimate over to make things interesting again.

Bumrah bowled an entire over superbly but Quinton de Kock made a huge mistake to concede four byes and it helped the equation come down to 9 off 6 balls. Malinga was entrusted to bowl the last over and the drama wasn’t done yet. One would’ve expected Watson to finish but coming round the wicket, the Sri Lankan legend lived up to his billing.

Strangely Watson got run out with three balls to go and Shardul Thakur brought it down to two off the last ball. It took a lot of time for MI to set the field and the Lankan legend superbly bowled a yorker to pin Thakur in front of the stumps and the celebrations began madly in the MI camp.

Pacers restrict MI to 149

After opting to bat first surprisingly, Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock started off very cautiously. The duo was kept quiet by Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur. The latter got stuck into Chahar’s next over though to slam him for three sixes in an over. MI were off and running with De Kock playing well on 29 only for Thakur to hurry him on the short ball. In the next over, Chahar flummoxed Rohit with the knuckle ball to stun the batting team.

Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan then rebuilt the innings but the run-scoring got less drastically. They added 37 runs in six overs and the former was castled by none other than Imran Tahir. Krunal Pandya was sent back soon by Thakur who plucked a wonderful catch off his own bowling. Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard then steadied things and set themselves up for a grand finish in the last three overs.

Hardik was even dropped in the 18th over by Suresh Raina and he made CSK pay by smashing 12 more runs. However, the fun didn’t go on for long thanks to Chahar who delivered an impeccable yorker to catch him plumb in front of the stumps. MI could churn out only four runs in the penultimate over while Kieron Pollard somehow managed to eke out nine runs in the final over as Mumbai Indians finished on 149 runs for the loss of eight wickets.

But they managed to win their second final by 1 run in the end and held their nerves fantastically in the last over to win their fourth title.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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