IPL 2020: Reliving all the past finals won by the Mumbai Indians
The Mumbai Indians, arguably the best franchise to compete in the IPL, have made it to their 6th IPL final this season. After having an extremely successful campaign and finishing at the top of the points table, the Rohit Sharma-led franchise beat the Delhi Capitals by 57 runs in the 1st Qualifier.
MI will be facing DC once again, however, after they managed to beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator.
The Mumbai Indians will be facing the Capitals for the fourth time this season, and while the final promises to be a thrilling encounter, Mumbai look well set to defend their title and lift the silverware again this season. With that in mind, we look back at all of Mumbai's previous IPL victories.
4. 2013 Final vs CSK
It was Sachin Tendulkar's final IPL season, and Mumbai had managed to make it to the IPL Final for the first time since 2010. Although the Master Blaster was not playing in the final, Mumbai were desperate to win the trophy and give the great man a deserving farewell. A young Rohit Sharma had taken over as captain midway through the season, and they were met by the dominant Chennai Super Kings in the final.
Batting first, Mumbai were in deep trouble at 52/4 in 10 overs. But Mumbai's talisman Kieron Pollard dug them out of the hole and helped Mumbai post a competitive 148/9 on the board.
Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson then took matters into their own hands as they bounced out the in-form top order of the Super Kings. The Men in Yellow had been reduced to 36/5 in the 7th over, and while MS Dhoni fought valiantly till the end, it was Mumbai that walked away with a 23-run win to claim their first-ever IPL title.
3. 2015 Final vs CSK
The Mumbai Indians had an extraordinarily poor start to their campaign in 2015. After losing 5 out of their first 7 games, they were rooted to the bottom of the table for the first two weeks of the season. However, Mumbai instigated a remarkable turnaround to finish in the top two and even beat CSK in the 1st qualifier to make it to the final.
Never a team to back down, Chennai managed win Qualifier 2 to face Mumbai in the final. Much like 2013, this final too was being played at the Eden Gardens, and this time to Mumbai were batting first. In contrast to their previous final encounter, Mumbai put a commanding 202/5 on the board. The Super Kings batting never took off as the Mumbai bowlers applied the squeeze to restrict CSK to just 161/8 and win their 2nd title.
2. 2017 Final vs RPS
Mumbai had an excellent league stage in 2017 and had finished at the top of the table. After being toppled by the Rising Pune Supergiant in the first Qualifier, which was also their 3rd loss to the Pune-based franchise, Mumbai managed to beat the Kolkata Knight Riders in Qualifier-2 and reached the final in a bid to win their 3rd title.
The final between MI and RPS turned out to be a last-ball thriller. After electing to bat first, Mumbai were off to a terrible start on a slow Hyderabad wicket, and the Supergaints had managed to reduce MI to 79/7.
However, a rescue act from Krunal Pandya meant that they managed to reach 129/8. No team had managed to defend a total of 129 or less since the 2013 season and Mumbai were on the back foot.
The game went down to the final few overs as Pune too batted with extreme caution. In the end it was the Mumbai bowlers who came out on top and did the job for them as RPS fell short of the total by just 1 run to hand Mumbai their 3rd IPL trophy, making them the most successful IPL team at that time.
1. 2019 vs CSK
The Mumbai Indians had yet another excellent season and finished on top of the table to claim a spot in Qualifier 1. They even managed to beat their arch-rivals CSK in that game to proceed through to the final. The defending champions CSK, however, managed to beat the Delhi Capitals to make it to their 8th IPL final. It was going to be the 4th IPL final featuring the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings.
The audience were treated to another last-ball thriller at Hyderabad. Batting first, Mumbai managed to put up 149/8 courtesy a great start from Quinton de Kock and a late surge from Kieron Pollard. In reply, Shane Watson held fort and batted valiantly at one end while wickets tumbled regularly at the other.
The game came down the last over once again, and Mumbai trusted the experienced Lasith Malinga to defend 9 off the last over. The equation came down to Chennai needing 2 to win off the last ball, and Malinga managed to trap Shardul Thakur in front to hand Mumbai their second 1-run victory in an IPL final.
The Rohit Sharma-led team picked up their 4th IPL title to barge past Chennai and claimed the mantle of being the most successful IPL team ever.