The Mumbai Indians overcame a poor start to their batting innings to defeat the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League final by 23 runs.
It is the first victory for the Indians’ franchise, denying Chennai’s bid to win three championships in four years in the process.
Kieron Pollard’s 60 runs not out spurred the Indians’ late offensive surge, while Ambati Rayudu added 37, helping Mumbai post a 148/9 total.
Chennai scored 125/9, as captain M.S. Dhoni scored a game-high 63 runs not out in a valiant comeback attempt.
Mumbai used a dizzying bowling attack to stun the Super Kings offence, as Lasith Malinga took two Chennai wickets on back-to-back balls in the opening over.
It didn’t always appear to be promising for the Indians early on, as opening batsman Dwayne Smith went down on the fourth ball of the match, by a leg before wicket.
Albie Morkel provided a superb early bowling spell for the Super Kings, claiming three consecutive wickets of Adithya Tare, Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik.
However, Pollard and Rayudu’s partnership kept the Super Kings at bay, and the duo spurred a resurgent attack, while Harbhajan Singh added 14.
Chennai’s attack was doomed from the beginning, as the Indian Premier League’s leading run scorer Michael Hussey was bowled by Malinga in the Super Kings’ first over.
Suresh Raina was brought in to replace Hussey, and was subsequently bowled by Malinga on a Smith catch, giving the Sri Lankan fast bowler a chance for a hat trick.
Subramaniam Badrinath needed to provide a spark for Chennai to have a chance of matching Mumbai’s total, but like Raina before him, failed to post a single run.
After taking Chennai’s seventh wicket, the celebration was on for Mumbai.
The broadcast cut to a jubilant Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar, widely considered the greatest cricketer of all-time has seemingly nothing left to accomplish in his career.
Although he did not participate in the match, the Indian legend was overjoyed with his team’s performance, taking part in a lengthy interview after the Indians claimed the Super Kings’ seventh and eighth wickets.
