Rohit Sharma's Mumbai Indians beat Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings by a solitary run off the last ball to clinch fourth IPL title
Mumbai Indians players celebrate winning the 2019 IPL title after beating Chennai Super Kings in the final by one run in Hyderabad yesterday. Pic/AFP
The night was all about two veterans. Lasith Malinga went for plenty till the final over and had six balls to redeem himself. Shane Watson whose bat remained largely a mute spectator the whole season too had six balls to atone for all that disappointment. Malinga needed to defend 9 runs in 6 balls and Watson needed to get them.
Watson, who made a brilliant 80, was run out in the 4th ball of the final over could not take Chennai Super Kings home. Malinga, once a champion final over bowler, reminded us of his heydays, delivering a brilliant slow yorker to trap.
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Chennai Super Kings cricketer Shane Watson raises his bat after scoring fifty runs during the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 final cricket match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in Hyderabad. Photo: AFP
Shardul Thakur leg before when Chennai needed two runs off the last ball of the match. Result: Mumbai Indians emerged a one-run winner to bag their fourth IPL title here on Sunday. Mumbai made 149/8 and the restricted Chennai to 148/7. However, the credit should also go to Krunal Pandya and Ishan Kishan for effecting the run outs of Watson and Dhoni respectively that played a massive role in turning the match.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians failed to exploit an excellent start given to them by Quinton de Kock, who went past 500 runs in IPL 2019 en route his cameo of 29 that came off 17 balls and contained four sixes. Dhoni has been using Deepak Chahar prominently in Power Plays this season, giving him three straight overs. But the De Kock onslaught forced Dhoni to rethink and he pressed Harbhajan Singh into service and the veteran offie brought a quick halt to the run flow.
Perhaps in his hurry to keep the run rate at the higher side of 10, De Kock went for a pull off Thakur. But he cramped the opener for room as the ball carried a bit more pace than the batsman expected. Dhoni could not have completed a simpler catch behind the stumps.
The Mumbai innings then slipped into inertia. They struggled to force the pace against Chennai spin trio of Harbhajan, Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadeja. Mumbai had a glimmer of hope of extending the total and it came from the presence of Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard. Pandya played couple helicopter shots to boost Mumbai. But he played that shot once too many and was eventually trapped leg before by Chahar.
Also read: IPL 2019: Mumbai Indians win last-ball thriller, lift 4th IPL trophy
But Mumbai had enough fire in their bowling unit to project a middling score as an insurmountable mountain.
Also read: Rohit Sharma: MI's super record against CSK in IPL-12 doesn't matter
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