IPL Final: Rohit Makes It Four Out Of Four

The stage was set for the grand finale of the Vivo IPL 2019 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday. The tournament started on March 23 and extended for nearly two months till May 12. Two heavyweight teams, MS Dhoni led-CSK and Rohit Sharma led-MI locked horns in the final. MI had the upper hand as they had won the previous three encounters against CSK this year. Both teams had won three IPL titles and were ready to win a record fourth one.

Mumbai had won the toss and had put themselves to bat first on a slow Hyderabad wicket. Deepak Chahar  found some swing in the first over conceding only two. MI got off to a great start scoring 45 in the first 5 overs with 5 sixes included. MI lost the momentum after that losing both their openers in a span of 5 balls. Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan never got really going scoring at less than a strike rate of 100. They both fell to Imran Tahir  and Krunal Pandya was out by a great juggling catch by Shardul Thakur. Deepak Chahar bowled brilliantly in the penultimate over conceding only four runs and getting two wickets including the all-important wicket of Hardik Pandya. Kieron Pollard finished it with his 41 off 25. Bravo kept on bowling outside the off stump in the final over and Pollard was unhappy on not been given two wide balls. MI finished with 149/8 which rounded off CSK for a target of 150.

Faf du Plessis gave CSK a good start with his power-hitting 26 off 13. He scored 14 off 3 balls before being outwitted by Krunal Pandya. Suresh Raina was finding it tough to time the ball before getting out LBW plumb in front of the wicket by Rahul Chahar and wasted CSK a review. CSK lost three quick wickets of major players. Bumrah got rid of Rayudu by a terrific delivery. MS Dhoni got run out after he made an unnecessary call for a run after an overthrow but Ishan Kishan quickly picked up the ball and got a bullet direct hit. Third umpire, Nigel Llong took a really long time to decide if Dhoni was run out or not as it was a really close call before finally sending him back to the pavilion. CSK scored just 18 runs in the 36 balls between overs 10 to 15 with MI having the upper hand. CSK  needed  62 off the final 5 overs, but with Shane Watson set on the crease, it totally seemed possible.  Watson scored 20 runs of the 16^th over bowled by Malinga. Bumrah bowled some beautiful balls conceding 4 off the next over.

Rohit Sharma handed Krunal Pandya the ball in the 18^th over who was hit to the cleaners by Watson conceding 20. The match was swinging in favour of CSK. Shane Watson had already been dropped thrice which proved costly for Mumbai. Eighteen runs of the final 2 overs wasn’t a big deal, but when a world class bowler like Bumrah is bowling, nothing can be said. He got Bravo out in the over’s first ball and conceded just 5 of the first 5 deliveries of the penultimate over before de Kock missed a swinging delivery coming to him and went for four. Nine of the last over with Watson still on the crease. He gets a single down to long-on. Eight off 5. Jadeja gives Watson back the strike and Watson gets a double. Five off 3. Watson hits one towards backward point and Watson was slow returning for the double getting run out by Krunal Pandya. Four off 2 and Shardul Thakur on strike. Malinga bowls a full toss onto the pads and Shardul Thakur gets a couple. Two off 1 ball. Malinga bowls a magnificent slower yorker which hits Thakur on the pads and the umpire raises his finger. Mumbai Indians had won the Vivo IPL 2019 by one run.

Jasprit  Bumrah was adjudged man of the match for his brilliant 2/14 of his four overs. Four times, every odd year- 2013,2015,2017 and 2019. The celebrations begun as Captain Rohit won a record 4^th title.