IPL 2019 Final: Captaincy move which won the game for Mumbai Indians
After more than seven weeks of quality cricket, it finally came down to this match. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are joint most successful franchises in the history of the Indian Premier League. Both of them were looking to become the first franchise to lift IPL four times in history.
Generally, teams elect to field first when they win the toss but considering pressure of final, Rohit Sharma opted to bat first tonight. Mumbai Indians got off to a fantastic start as Quinton de Kock seemed to be in a great knick. The South African collected 20 runs off one over of Deepak Chahar.
Most captains would not give bowling to a bowler who started so poorly but Dhoni is different. When De Kock got out, Dhoni sensed an opportunity to bring back Chahar from the other end. The pacer delivered as he got the important wicket of Rohit Sharma to derail MI innings.
From there on, MI struggled to get any kind of momentum as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Kieron Pollard played a brilliant knock but he kept losing partners on the other end. MI managed to set a target of 150 for CSK which was below par.
MI needed but they failed to do so as Faf du Plessis and Shane Watson gave them a good start. Krunal Pandya dismissed Du Plessis to bring MI back in the game. Then Rahul Chahar got the wicket of Suresh Raina to give MI a real chance.
Jasprit Bumrah delivered for his team by picking the wicket of Ambati Rayudu. This brought MS Dhoni to the crease earlier than he would have liked. When MS Dhoni got run out while trying to pinch a run off an overthrow, the match turned on its head.
The defending champions depended on Shane Watson to take them home. The Australian all-rounder was up to the task as he played a brilliant innings. Watson simply looked unstoppable as he brought the equation down to nine runs off last over.
This is where Rohit Sharma took a brave call by giving the last over to Lasith Malinga. The Sri Lankan had gone for lots of runs in the first three overs but he used his experience to defend the score. MI won the match by one run to become the first team to lift the IPL trophy for the fourth time.