KOLKATA: Mumbai Indians crowned Indian Premier League champions for the second time with a 42-run win over two-time champions Chennai Super Kings in the final at Eden Gardens Sunday night.
Rohit Sharma stood tall as he lifted the IPL Trophy. Why not? This is the sort of story, he could tell his grand children. It was here at the Eden Gardens against Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening fixture that after an unbeaten 98, Rohit saw his Mumbai Indians side slump to first of their four losses in a row. It would soon become six. They were all but out. It would have taken even a gambler plenty of courage to place money on this side. But this has been a surreal turnaround. The stuff, young captains dream about. But Rohit wasn’t doing so here. Staring with the bat with 50 off the most delightful runs he helped Mumbai Indians defeat Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs and become only the second captain to win two IPL titles after MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir.
Despite guiding the team to couple of IPL titles, Rohit’s captaincy is often overlooked. True his batting has not matched the talent, but there is no denying the fact that he has thrived when thrust upon responsibility. On Sunday he once again led from the front as Mumbai Indians after losing Parthiv Patel in the first over still went on to make a monumental 202/5. Rohit set the platform with a 119-run partnership with Lendl Simmons who top scored with 68 (45b, 8x4, 3x6). Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard then took charge after a brief lull, sending Chennai Super Kings on a leather hunt as even MS Dhoni lost his cool couple of times.
Having won the toss and inserted Mumbai Indians, Dhoni was let down by the bowlers – big time. Ashish Nehra, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja went over 10 an over and Mohit Sharma, Dwayne Bravo and Pawan Negi went over 9 as Mumbai came out all guns blazing.
Rohit and Eden Gardens are fast becoming a new love story on the same lines as Mohammad Azharuddin and VVS Laxman as the right-hander seemed to be in the zone from the word go. If his first six was little bit of a bravado – a upper cut over third-man – his second was as all but pure elegance. Stepping down the wicket, he lofted a flighted delivery from Ashwin for a six. His six boundaries competed with each other for sheer timing and grace. He even went through a stretch in which he faced only one ball as Simmons joined the party.
The Caribbean was at his punishing best against spinners and was particularly good off the back-foot against pacers. The duo departed in succession but this Mumbai side has showed indomitable spirit. Rayudu and Pollard then went on a carnage adding more insult to the already drooping shoulders of Chennai as Suresh Raina with a couple of good catches looked to get something as they went into the break needing 203 to win their third title.
For all the praise and the credit that comes Stephen Flemings’s way for building one of the most consistent teams there is no denying the fact that Chennai Super Kings are aliens to experiments.
They try and go with tested men. No matter what until and unless there is a forced change, they always stick to the XI. They persisted with Jadeja and apart from his two expensive overs which went for 29, he had little role in the side. They knew Brendon McCullum would miss the knockout phase and could have given Michael Hussey some playing time. But here chasing a tall total, Hussey hardly put the bat on the ball in brief torture of 9 balls.
With Dwayne Smith too kept silent on the other end with some smart bit captaincy – fielders at mid-wicket and long-on met two of the batsman’s scoring shot were cut-off – Mumbai built the pressure. They scored a meager 31 runs in the powerplay and it left too much of an ask after that. Though Smith top-scored with 57, the total was way beyond Chennai’s reach as they finished at 161/8 with Raina, Dhoni, Bravo and Du Plessis all failing with the bat.