Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 129/8 (Krunal Pandya 47; Rohit Sharma 24; Jaydev Unadkat 2/19, Adam Zampa 2/32) beat Rising Pune Supergiant 128/6 (Ajinkya Rahane 44, Steve Smith 51; Mitchell Johnson 3/26, Jasprit Bumrah 2/26) by 1 run. 

Chasing the purple cap, Jaydev Unadkat made sure that Pune started on the front foot after claiming the wicket of Parthiv Patel on the first ball of his second over after giving away just three runs in the first one. Three balls later, the 25-year-old took a worldie off his own bowling to send Lendl Simmons packing as well. With Mumbai struggling at 9/2 after three overs, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu decided to slow things down and build a partnership. The former picked Kiwi pacer Lockie Ferguson as the weak link and smashed four boundaries in his first over to take the score to 32/2 at the end of the powerplay. Even though Steve Smith dismissed Rayudu with a brilliant direct hit, Mumbai appeared to have consolidated their position at the midway point with the scoreboard reading 56/3.

Just when Mumbai would have thought to put their foot on the accelerator, Adam Zampa came to the fore to undo all the good work that Rohit had done, dismissing both the Mumbai captain and his deputy in the 11th over to put the two-time champions into even more trouble. Hardik Pandya joined his brother at the crease but his visit was shortened when he was caught plumb in front of his stumps to leave Mumbai at 79/6 with six overs to go. Karn Sharma, too, didn’t last long as he was dismissed on the first ball of the next over and with Mumbai managing just 13 runs in the next three overs, the game appeared to be headed for a quick conclusion. However, Krunal, who ended up with 47 runs, and Mitchell Johnson, scored 37 runs off the last 18 balls to take the team score to a respectable 129/8.

Smith and Rahane stabilize innings after Tripathi dismissal 

Johnson and Bumrah secure unlikely win for Mumbai

Pune seemed to be gaining momentum with both batsmen getting a boundary apiece in the next two overs that followed as the run rate started coming under seven an over. However, Rahane failed to pick up a slower delivery by Johnson and his chip found his way straight into the hands of the diving Pollard at long on. After Rahane’s dismissal, Pune, for the first time in the game, looked to be under pressure scoring just 12 runs in the next three overs as the run rate crept to 9.4 with five overs to go. Even though Pune scored 14 runs in the 16th over, Bumrah gave away just 3 runs in the next along picked the all-important wicket of MS Dhoni which resulted in the required run rate reaching double digits. However, Smith was not done yet. The Pune captain brought up his fifty whilst taking 19 runs off two overs to bring the equation to an achievable 11 off six balls. With Manoj Tiwary scoring a boundary off the first ball of Johnson’s over, it seemed like Mumbai’s efforts were going to go in vain. But keeping with the trend of the game, Mumbai found a way to claw their way back with Johnson dismissing Tiwary and Smith on consecutive balls. In the end, it wasn’t to be the fairytale end for the Dhoni-Smith team as they fell short of Mumbai’s score by 1 run.