The curtains fall on the 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), an affair that lasted 53 days spanning over 60 matches, and the much-anticipated winners of the tournament turn out to be the Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians outclassed Delhi Capitals as they became the champions of the IPL for the fifth time in the history of the tournament.
Mumbai Indians (MI) faced Delhi Capitals (DC) in the show stopper match of the tournament. They defeated the opponents by 5 wickets chasing down the target of 156 runs. The ever so impressive MI reached the target in 18.4 overs.
DC won the toss and considered it favorable to bat first, a decision that not quite bothered the MI captain. The Shreyas Iyer led team had presented a target of 157 runs at a loss of 7 wickets. Iyer and Pant contributed the most runs to the total. Iyer scored 65 off 50 balls, whereas, Pant knocked 56 off 38 balls. However, MI did a great job of immobilizing the batting line-up.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and Trent Boult turned out to be the knights in the shining armor for the team. Rohit smashed a stellar 68 runs off 51 balls. Boult, on the other hand, clobbered the opposition batting line-up with his paces, dismissing 3 wickets giving away only 30 runs. His most spectacular hunt was that of the DC opener Marcus Stoinis who he sent back to the pavilion in just his first ball. He bagged the much-deserving Player of the Match award.
Ishan Kishan was just as impressive, contributing 33 runs to the chase in 19 balls. Nathan Coulter-Nile did his bit for the victory of the team by scalping 2 wickets. A phenomenal fielding by the team deserves as much credit. Overall, MI put up a spectacular show giving an exhilarating end to the tournament.
A one of a kind moment was that the captains of both the teams scored over fifty runs in the finale. This is the second time in IPL that the captains of both the opponent teams completed their half-centuries in the final match. The match was the most memorable for Rohit Sharma as he reached the milestone of 3000 runs as a captain in what was his 200th match.
Along with the crown of the champions of the tournament, MI also the Fairplay Award for this season. While DC’s Kagiso Rabada takes home the Purple Cap for this season for amssing 30 wickets in 17 games.
