Mitchell Johnson returned with figures of 3/26 in four over. (Source: BCCI)
Rohit Sharma lifted his third IPL title as a skipper when Mumbai Indians pulled off a fascinating one-run win over Rising Pune Supergiant in the IPL 2017 final at Hyderabad. Opting to bat first, Rohit Sharma’s side fumbled in the start as they lost both openers within three overs.
However, Krunal Pandya steadied the ship later on and he was the only batsman who stood strong against a formidable Rising Pune bowling attack. The left-handed batsman scored 47 runs off 38 deliveries as Mumbai ended their quota of 20 overs at 129/8.
Pune was expected to see of the match especially after the innings from Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith who scored 44 and 51 runs respectively.
But the real drama began in the penultimate over when Supergiant’s required 23 runs off 12 balls. The ball was given to death overs specialist Jasprit Bumrah. Bumrah conceded four runs in first four deliveries to push Pune on backfoot.
Bumrah then bowled a full-length delivery outside off-stump and Steve Smith showcased his ability, went deep into the crease and smashed him over long-off boundary for a six. The right-arm Indian bowler then bowled a high full toss and Smith got a couple of runs on that one. Although, the Pune skipper was pretty annoyed after it wasn’t called a no-ball by the square-leg umpire.
In the last over the required runs came down to 11 from 6 and the responsibility was given to one of the most experienced bowlers in the Mumbai Indians squad – Mitchell Johnson. Manoj Tiwary who was facing Johsnon scored a boundary on the first delivery as he nicely picked the gap and lifted it over square-leg.
The right-hander was dismissed on the very next ball when Kieron Pollard took a fantastic catch at long-on. He was undone for 7. Johnson then scalped skipper Steve Smith who tried to smash him over extra cover but found Ambati Rayudu who somehow, grabbed the catch in the deep. This certainly turned out to be the turning point of the match.
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Thereafter, RPS had two new batsmenat the crease, Daniel Christian and Washington Sundar at the crease. Sundar was facing the hat-trick delivery and the left-handed batsman somehow survived a york-length delivery and later managed to rotate the strike as well. Christian was now up against Johnson to face the fifth ball.
He hit it hard but only found Hardik Pandya who though dropped the catch at deep mid-wicket but didn’t allow the batsmen to steal more than two runs. Now the task was 4 runs from the last ball and as expected Johnson bowled a short of york length delivery that was going down the leg side.
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Christian got the bat on the ball as it raced towards the are between deep square leg and deep mid-wicket. Suchith ran in hard to field the ball, but he fumbled it in the deep but ultimately prevented the Pune batsmen from taking the third run. Daniel Christian was run out for 4 and Mumbai won the final by 1 run. Mitchell Johnson returned with figures of 3/26 in four overs.
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