How Mumbai Indians' Flawless Field Placement Secured Their 3rd IPL Championship

(Mumbai Indians team celebrating their 3rd IPL Title)

In the Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians have been a team that has always made some tough decisions while playing the league. Be it the removal of their captain Ricky Ponting and giving the captaincy to Rohit Sharma or by dropping players like Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, and others from the playing XI, they have done everything to make the team a better one. The same was done on the night of the Finals in 2017 when the team managed to defend a target of just 130 runs against the Rising Pune Supergiants and won the IPL trophy by just 1 run. The way Rohit Sharma captained that team was incredible and how his just one field placement allowed the Mumbai Indians team to grab their 3rd IPL title will be revealed here.

Mumbai Indians vs Rising Pune Supergiants: IPL 2017 Finals

After finishing at the first and second position in the points table, Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants met in the Finals of the season. It was the 4th time when both the teams were up against each other in the season and the previous 3 times, it was Rising Pune Supergiants who were the winners and hence for the Finals also, they were confident of taking another win and the trophy with them. On 21st May 2017, Mumbai Indians were up against the Rising Pune Supergiants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad for the Finals.

With the toss coming in the favour of Mumbai Indians, they took the chance by batting first and were looking to post a big score to make it tough for the opponents. However, they failed to have a positive start to their innings as in just the first 3 overs, they lost both the openers. Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel were back in the hut with the scorecard being 2-8 in just 2.4 overs. Being in a bothersome position, Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma got a partnership of 33 runs and it looked like the team was back on track for a big total now.

(Krunal Pandya played an innings of 47 runs from 38 balls in the IPL 2017 Finals)

But the other two quick wickets of Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma meant that the Mumbai Indians team was again in a difficult position. Within just 11 overs, the team was at 65-5 and even Kieron Pollard was out without troubling the scoreboard and hence it looked like Rising Pune Supergiants was all set to get their hands on the title now. However, Krunal Pandya stepped up for his team and despite losing players like Hardik Pandya and Karn Sharma from the other end, he kept the Mumbai Indians team in the game by playing well.

At one stage, the Mumbai Indians team was 79-7 in the 14.1 overs and all the Mumbai Indians fans lost the hopes of making a comeback in the match but after holding one end, Krunal Pandya finally took the score to 129 runs with the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 overs. From the Rising Pune Supergiants team, it was Jaydev Unadkat who picked 2 wickets in his 4 overs and gave away just 19 runs to make sure that Pune is on the road to chase the target easily.

(Ajinkya Rahane played solid innings of 44 runs from 38 balls in the Finals)

Coming to chase this total, Rising Pune Supergiants were confident of taking things well and were positive from the start. However, in the 3rd over, the team lost Rahul Tripathi for just 3 runs and then there was an amazing partnership between Steve Smith and Ajinkya Rahane who were batting well and looked comfortable at the crease. With some chances going their way, both of them kept the scoreboard ticking and by the end of the 11 overs, they were 65/1 and needed just 65 runs more in 9 overs for their first IPL title.

However, things suddenly started looking weak after the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane who was caught out on 44 runs against Mitchell Johnson and it was Kieron Pollard who took the catch at long-on to take the things in Mumbai Indian's way. After the wicket of Rahane, Smith was joined by MS Dhoni in the middle and now the team required 47 runs from the last 5 overs and with so much batting yet to come, it was looking easy for the Pune team. In the 16th over of the game, Steve Smith played a reverse sweep to get six runs and managed to pick 14 runs from that over to bring down the equation to 33 runs from 4 overs.

(Jasprit Bumrah celebrates after picking the wicket of MS Dhoni)

Coming to the 17th over, it was Jasprit Bumrah who finally gave the Mumbai Indians a breakthrough as MS Dhoni was dismissed for just 10 runs from 13 balls and then it was Manoj Tiwary who came to bat alongside Steve Smith. In the 18th and 19th over, both the batters managed to score 19 runs combined and now for the last over of the game, Rising Pune Supergiants required just 11 runs to win the game and the IPL title. With both the set batters, it was looking like an easy task for the team and for this, the last over was given to Mitchell Johnson now.

In the meanwhile, Steve Smith completed his half-century in the run chase and for the last over of the game, he was the danger man to the Mumbai Indians team. On the first ball of the last over, Manoj Tiwary managed to hit four runs which brought down the equation to 7 runs from 5 balls and the Pune camp was looking set to lift the trophy. However, a wicket on the next ball shifted the momentum towards the Mumbai Indians camp which was back in the game and now the Pune team needed 7 runs from the 4 balls left in the match.

(Mitchell Johnson celebrates after getting Steve Smith out in the Finals)

After the wicket of Manoj Tiwary, Steve Smith was back on the strike for the 3rd ball of the over. However, just before this delivery, Rohit Sharma placed a fielder at the sweeper cover because of Smith’s habit of getting a boundary at that region. Johnson bowled a fuller delivery at the off stump and it was Smith who opened the face of the bat and got the shot flat straight towards the only fielder placed at the off-side region for this ball only.

With this wicket, the whole of the Mumbai Indian camp celebrated aggressively as they had got the big fish out at the crucial moment. Now with 7 required of 3, the next two balls saw just 3 runs coming up and for the last delivery of the match, the Pune team required a boundary to seal off the win and the IPL Title for the first time. Johnson's delivery saw Christian's swing miss its mark, sending the ball awkwardly between fielders. Suchith's fumble momentarily gave Pune hope, but his recovery dashed it. Christian grabbed two runs, but the third was futile. With a flawless throw, the match ended, securing Mumbai Indians their third IPL Trophy.

(Moment when Mumbai Indians won their 3rd IPL Title)

When Mumbai Indians won their third title, it was Rohit Sharma who came running from the boundary to celebrate with his teammates. Being the leader of the team. He did a fantastic job while defending a low total of just 130 runs while on the other hand, the fans saw the dejected face of Steve Smith who was so close to lift the IPL trophy for the first time. Throughout the season, Smith was in sublime form and managed to make 472 runs from the 15 innings played while having an average of 39.33 for the team in the crucial games.

In the post-match presentation, both the captains said that the pitch was a low-scoring one and it was tough to play the shots. Furthermore, Rohit Sharma even mentioned that he had confidence in his bowlers and this is why they managed to win the game and the IPL title. In the interview that was taken, he said that:

“I'm calm now. It was a great game of cricket. I'm sure the spectators enjoyed it. To be able to defend a score like this was a brilliant effort, I couldn't ask for more. Whenever you're defending a total like that, the first thing you have to do is believe. I told the boys if we could do it against KKR (105) there was no way we couldn't do it here. There was assistance from the pitch too so it was a matter of exploiting the conditions. When three overs were left, I had confidence in the bowlers. They've always done the job wherever they've played. It was about giving freedom to them because they're the masters and they've done it before. I just told them to do whatever they want and set the field accordingly.”

Mumbai Indians vs Rising Pune Supergiant, Final at Hyderabad, May 21 2017
Mumbai Indians	Rising Pune Supergiant
129/8 (20 overs)	128/6 (20 overs)
Krunal Pandya 47 (38)	Steve Smith 51 (50)
Jaydev Unadkat 2/19 (4 overs)	Mitchell Johnson 3/26 (4 overs)
Mumbai Indians won by 1 run

For the Mumbai Indians team, this finals will always be a memorable one because of the way they handled the pressure and managed to defeat the Rising Pune Supergiants despite having an amazing batting lineup. On the other hand, Steve Smith and his men lost the match even after having control of it for almost 38 overs of the game and this is what makes the T20 format different from the other formats played out there.