'Consistency' - The feature of this MI side..

Sadio Mane scored at Anfield and just 10 mins later, Glenn Murray sent Brighton into the lead at the Amex stadium against Manchester City. If it were to stay that way, Liverpool would have ended the 29 year long draught but it wasn't to be. If it was the last day of the premier league, there was another trophy to be decided as well but in a completely different part of the world. The IPL final was waiting for millions to get stuck in front of the T.V. and enjoy the spectacle. It promised a lot. It had to deliver and it did. Mumbai and CSK each had 3 IPL titles to their name before this final so this was the match that was going to decide the most successful team in IPL history. Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat on a descent enough wicket in Hyderabad and he couldn't have asked for a better start from Quinton de Kock. Having smashed Deepak Chahar for 3 sixes in an over, Mumbai were cruising at 45 for no loss. Wickets at regular intervals meant that they could only reach upto 149, thanks to another crucial innings in another final by Kieron Pollard. Imran Tahir again the stand out bowler in what was a pretty good effort with the ball and in the field by Chennai Super Kings. CSK got off to a steady start courtesy Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis. When everything seemed well and good for CSK, Krunal Pandya had Faf du Plessis stumped to give MI the breakthrough they badly needed. That to me was the turning point of the match. Faf was having an exceptional tournament and he was again looking well on course. With Watson getting settled at the other end, the opening partnership had to be broken quickly for MI to have any chance of defending 149. Raina survived once but succumbed soon after and Rayudu followed without any delay. At 81-3, with Shane Watson slowly getting comfortable at the crease and the presence of the greatest finisher limited overs cricket has ever seen, 70 odd runs in 8 overs didn't look a tough enough task. Watson miscued a pull off Hardik Pandya and Dhoni wanted the extra run off the overthrow. Ishan Kishan was aware to cover at mid off and hit the stumps to send MS Dhoni back. It took forever for the third umpire to make the decision. After plenty of camera angles and frames, three dreaded letters showed up on the big screen. After 2 tight overs from Chahar and Mclenaghan, Malinga gave away as many as 20 in his third over. Now csk needed only 42 in 4 overs with Shane Watson teeing off at one end. Bumrah bowled another nerveless over to leave CSK needing 38 off 3 overs. Rohit Sharma handed the ball to Krunal Pandya which I thought wasn't the right decision because he still had 3 overs left of Hardik Pandya. With 38 needed off 3, Watson ripped apart Krunal with 3 massive sixes to swing the pendulum their way. 20 off 2! It was surely CSK's game to lose but not if you have Jasprit Bumrah to face. He bowled all the 6 deliveries in excess of 145 kph, gave away only 7 in the first 5 balls including the wicket of DJ Bravo. Bumrah again fired a thunderbolt at Jadeja which he obviously missed by a long way but it was too quick for even Quinton de Kock who made a mess of it and gave away 4 byes. 9 runs needed off the last over. You can literally bet on this and win 8 out of 10 times. When you add to that the poor fielding and Malinga's dreadful performance on the night, you could make it 9 out of 10! But that is where captaincy plays a bug part, doesn't it? Lasith Malinga, a legend of Mumbai Indians and the IPL itself, over 150 wickets, match winner for them for a number of seasons, king of yorkers as they used to call him, some still call him that, he had to believed in one more time! Rohit Sharma had the option of Hardik Pandya who had given away just 3 runs off his one over but the problem with Pandya is that there is one inevitable bad delivery in every over. He can be erratic. Malinga was having a horrible evening but Rohit showed a lot of faith in him and he delivered. After 5 almost perfect deliveries, the equation bad come down to 2 off 1 ball. It had to be the perfect delivery because if the ball had hit the bat and gone past the inner circle, the 2nd run was always on. Malinga bowled the slower ball he is known for all these years. He got it right, on the money, bang in front to win Mumbai the fourth IPL title, their third victory over Chennai in the finals and fourth against MS Dhoni.
     This could be Mumbai's best ever campaign in terms of consistency. They never lost two consecutive matches this season which tells you a lot about the team's character. What it means is that every time they stumbled, they recovered from it immediately. Media and experts talk about character a lot. What is character? Well, this is character! We knew that this team was capable of winning the IPL even before a ball went down because of the number of match winners and brilliant individual cricketers they have got. We thought Rohit Sharma had to be in a good nick to carry his team forward but that was no where to be seen. With only 2 fifty plus scores and literally only one match winning knock, Rohit Sharma the batsman had a very poor IPL. But Quinton de Kock made up for him with lots of runs and important runs at the top of the order. Krunal Pandya was good for the better part of the season. Pollard did a descent job as he always does, especially in the playoffs. The two standout individuals without a shadow of a doubt were Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Bumrah was arguably the standout bowler in the IPL. With 19 wickets at 21.53 and an economy rate of 6.63, he was always there to deliver when the team needed it. The other individual which has impressed everybody is Hardik Pandya. Almost 400 runs with a strike rate of 193 is out of this world. Only Andre Russell has better numbers than him but Pandya's contribution with the ball and in the field is far greater than anyone else in this year's IPL. The number of times he finished the innings, either batting first or second, his ball striking was as clean as ever. The highlight of his IPL to me was his innings of 91 off 38 balls against KKR. Not because of the strike rate, not because of the number sixes but because of the sheer audacity and the fact that he made people forget Andre Russell's 80 off 40 on the same night. Lasith Malinga didn't have a great IPL by his standards but he was a vital cog in MI's setup. Suryakumar Yadav's contribution could be very underrated but he played a very critical role of providing stability and solidity to the middle order. Other players like Rahul Chahar, Jason Berhendorff, Alzari Joseph did what they could when they got the chance. Rohit Sharma was aweful with the bat but his captaincy was second to none. If don't consider MS Dhoni for a moment, Rohit Sharma was the best captain and head and shoulders above every other captain. The way he handled Jasprit Bumrah was one of the highlights of his captaincy. He handled the spinners really well and even the fifth bowler. If you see, the fifth bowler didn't cost Mumbai too much more often because Rohit was smart enough. One of the reasons why he is a quality captain is that he never seems to get flustered in a situation of crisis. Unlike Virat Kohli for example, he doesn't 'follow the ball' but backs his bowlers to get the job done. The faith shown by Rohit Sharma in the senior members was a very pleasing sight to see. This season will be remembered for many close matches including the final but also for Rohit Sharma's captaincy skills. With the World Cup on the horizon and almost everybody looking in touch, let's hope that the players get over the IPL nostagia as quickly as possible and look forward to a far greater and important prospect.