IPL 2017 final: Woken up Mumbai Indians set to rise

Mumbai Indians chief coach Mahela Jayawardene and skipper Rohit Sharma during a net session at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on April 8 ahead of the clash vs Kolkata Knight Riders PICSURESH KARKERAThe odds are stacked against Mumbai Indians MI going by stats and recent history if they count for anything on a cricket field as the twotime champions take on Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian Premier League10 final at Uppal here todayMumbai have been in the final on three previous occasions and have triumphed twice They were also the pretournament favourites for the title Unlike previous editions they had shed the slow starters tag and was the first team to make it to the play offs So what triggered their stocks to take a beating First they have lost to their todays opponents Rising Pune Supergiant thrice in succession in this IPLThat loss in HyderabadThey have also lost the only match they played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal the venue for the final Their strike bowler Mitchell McClenaghan is injured and in batting especially the top and middle order there is a lack of consistency among their top players This indicates that they perhaps peaked a little too early But skipper Rohit Sharma speaking to the media on eve of the final said on Saturday I know we dont have a great history against Pune Obviously they have played some good cricket throughout the tournament But I would like to put it this way we were not good on those days thats probably the reason we lost those games On Sunday we need to make sure that we are better than them play good cricket and focus on what we need to do as a team If we get all these things right I am sure the result will take care of itself It is important to focus on the process rather than look too far aheadRohit not worried He also stressed that he is not bothered by the inconsistency if one may call it so in their batting because someone or the other has stood up and delivered whether it is their batting or bowlingWe didnt have any individual brilliance throughout the tournament but still we are in the final which shows that someone or the other has taken up the responsibility and done the job for us It shows that we have worked as a teamI am not worried about our key players not delivering consistently because they havent had opportunities consistently Not everybody can have a good day everyday said the skipperThough there have been ups and downs in the campaign MI head coach Mahela Jayawardene said that it was good to keep the players on their toes coming into the final We got a wakeup call against Pune in our first game and realised that we have to play better cricket than that We got into some momentum won some close matches made sure that we kept going but again Pune gave us a wakeup call in the middle of the season and made us regroup so that we dont slack towards the latter part of the tournamentMI word a teamIt was a good team effort a lot of guys put their hands up in crucial moments and won us games to be in the play offs Then again they gave us another wakeup call and we had to go to Bangalore play a good game of cricket to be here I helped all the boys regroup again and be on their toes coming hereSo though MI may not start as favourites they are ready to take the bull by the horns