Champions League Twenty20 Finals: Mumbai Indians Sealed The Fate of Royal Challengers Bangalore Despite Low Score of 139

No changes were done to any of the two teams playing in their finals having the same players that played the semi finals. Mumbai Indians started well with a sixer on the last ball of the first over of innings, clearly indicating their intentions right from the word go. Mumbai Indians won the toss and decided to bat first.

Blizzard got run out in the 2^nd over when he along with the opposite end player stood helpless at one end of the crease only. It was Blizzard who only ran from the batting end and reached the other end where Kanwar was standing without any initiative to take run. Actually it was no run and unnecessarily Blizzard gifted his wicket.  Ambati Rayudu came next. He opened his innings with a 4. At the end of 2^nd over MI were 15 for the loss of 1 wicket.

MI need to make at least over 160 runs to keep their chances alive as the RCB team has solid players like Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and others. Last ball of Nannes in 4^th over of the game clean bowled Kanwar at his individual score of 10 and MI was 24 for the loss of two. James Franklin was next to bat. It was a Yorker ball. 2 wickets down declined MIs run rate and at the end of 5^th over they were 30. Nannes had a good bowling figure of 2 overs 9 runs and 1 wicket that of Kanwar. Franklin hit his first and innings 2^nd six in the 6^th over on the bowling of Aravind.

Aravind is the topper in most sixes hit so far with 10 to his credit. When Franklin and Rayudu were going great guns, Rayudu got out at 22 made in 21 balls, while trying to hit a big shot over mid on that got mistimed.  The run rate was revived back to 6.96. Yadav was next to join. In 10 overs Mumbai Indians were 71 for the loss of three wickets. End of 12^th over saw MI with 82 for 3. It was Yadav who broke the silence by hitting a big six in the 13^th over followed by a 4 on the next ball. It was 14 overs made in 13^th over and the score got improved to 96 for 3 with 7 overs more to go.

Franklin roared back in the 14^th over to complete 100 runs of the innings. But the next ball saw Yadav’s departure getting run out in an unfortunate manner when Vettori did a quick action to take the bails off before he could get his bat in while trying to get back to his crease that he has left when Vettori bowled to Franklin. Mumbai Indians were 105 for 4 and Kieron Pollard came in the middle to take the charge. Franklin was at 41 at that moment of time. The next ball was a great cheer for Royal Challengers Bangalore when Franklin left the crease getting run out trying to take 2^nd run which was not there. Franklin made 41 off just 29 balls.

Two wickets in two consecutive overs gave a double blow to MI team. Run rate was 7.45 in 15^th over. Vettori’s last over’s first ball which was 16^th over of the game gave a big blow to MI when Pollard gave a soft catch to mid on player and got out on just 2 runs. It was Captain Harbhajan Singh who joined but could not stay for long when he got lbw out on the 3^rd ball of the same over. MI was reduced to 109 for 7 with 4.3 over left in the innings. Lasith Malinga opened his innings with a straight six over the bowler, Vettori. MI score was 115 for 7 at the end of 16 overs.

Finally a target of 140 to win was set for RCB to grab the trophy. The score seemed easily achievable with so much batting depth available with the RCB team. But top 4 batsmen were back to pavilion by the closing of 12^th over with score on the board as 73. With Tilakratane Dilshan, Chris Gayle Virat Kohli and Mayank Agarwal getting out, RCB went into defensive mode and probably that brought in more risk and danger to their balance batsmen. The next 3 batsmen were back within 19 runs reducing the score to 92 for 7 in 17^th over, thereby making it a tough task when only Saurabh Tiwary as a batsman was left in the side. The low score of MI turned into a blessing for them as the fate had something else written on the wall.

In the 18^th over when Tiwary also was sent back to pavilion, the story was much clearer. 42 runs were required in 15 balls to win. Kudos to Harbhajan Singh who played a captain’s knock by dismissing two most dangerous men on the RCB side – Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli and later scalped the wicket of RCB Captain Daniel Vettori also. Yuzvendra Chahal also did a marvellous piece of bowling of 3 overs 9 runs and 2 wickets.

The result was almost clear with 18.5 runs per over required in last 2 overs and no established batsmen left for RCB.  The second highest runs for RCB were from Extras which was 20. Top scorer was Dilshan with 27 runs. In his last over and innings’ penultimate over, Malinga took the 9^th wicket of RCB. Last over required 32 runs to win with only 1 wicket in hand. Abu Nechim took the last wicket of RCB in his and innings’ last over thereby closing RCB innings at 108 all out.

Mumbai Indians Win CLT20 finals by 31 runs.