The IPL Final between the Chennai Superkings and Mumbai Indians was a superb contest which swung from one way to the other. You couldn’t have asked for more.
In the end, two things cost Mumbai the match. Firstly their fielding – dropping Raina twice proved costly. Mumbai has been poor in the field right through the IPL and it finally came up to haunt them in this game.
The captaincy, for which Tendulkar has been praised right through, fell short too. Sending Harbhajan Singh, keeping Pollard in the dug out till the very late were both poor decisions.
Tendulkar also made a strategic mistake when he batted in my opinion. Tendulkar has been known for his placement shots in the past two years but when the run rate climbed to above 13, he went to play power shots instead which were never going to work. There were at least three shots including the one on which he got out which would have gone for fours or a six had he had more power in his hand.
Tendulkar and Pollard batted out of their skins though and have to be credited for that. Disappointingly for the Mumbai Indians no other batsman made much of a contribution.
Dhoni and Raina had a very crucial partnership which changed the complexion of the match. Dhoni put the fielders in the right places mostly (I still don’t get why he put a slip right at the very end though) and Chennai held their catches.
They have a good all round team with guys like Murali Vijay (who is a terrific young player), the ever reliable Dhoni, Raina, Badrinath, Hayden and bowlers like Jakati (who is always consistent), Aswhin (who gave less than 3 runs an over in the 5 ‘first overs’ he bowled in the IPL), Bollinger (who added the sharpness to the teeth in the bowling). Importantly, Murali came to the party as well.
It was a good all round effort and kudos to them for winning the title.
Dear Pratyush,
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