IPL 10 Final, RPS v MI - 5 Game Changing Moments

It was a game of high intensity as expected from an IPL final. The match was at the end decided by ability to handle the pressure better, and on a precious night, it was the Mumbai Indians who had the nerve of steel which helped them win their third Indian Premier League title.

The match was the best of the IPL finals till date with the balance swinging towards both the team’s for equal periods, but it was the Mumbai Indians who kept adding the pressure with some tight bowling spells and the good display on the field. Batting first in the highly anticipated match, the Mumbai got off to the worst of starts with the openers getting out early in the innings.

They were then reduced to 73/7 before a resurgent inning from the willow of Krunal Pandya. The all-rounder ensured that the Mumbai got to a total of 129 with the end of their 20 overs. The Rising Pune Supergiant could not muster the total, failed and crumbled under pressure despite possessing the calmness in likes of Steve Smith and MS Dhoni. The total was one run more than what the Supergiant could get.

Here are the five game-changing moments of the IPL finals:

1. Jayadev Unadkat continues to impress:

The 24-year-old left-arm pacer has definitely got all the skills and talents to set foot on the bigger stage. Once again it was the left-arm pacer out bowled the entire Pune team with an outstanding spell early in the innings.

He picked up two wickets in the third over to help the Puneri side get off to the best start, with Mumbai reeling at 8/2. Unadkat concluded the season with 24 wickets just two short of the purple cap. Although, in the end, his bowling performance and figures went in vain as the Pune failed to chase the total.

2. Krunal Pandya makes it big:

Krunal has performed better than his brother Hardik in the last two seasons of the tournament facing constant pressure both with the bat and the ball. The big stage was calling and lanky all-rounder, who mustered enough confidence to smack the ball over the boundary at the point where the rest of the team was struggling to get the momentum with 47 runs off just 38 balls including two sixes and three boundaries.

With the ball, the left-arm spinner controlled and kept the things tight before Dhoni and Smith got the better of him in his last over. The all-rounder ended with figures of 0-31 failing to pick up any wickets in the innings.

3. Pune’s sluggish run chase:

Pune did not quite get the momentum required to chase down the score of 130 to win the grand finals. The openers did not get the start that Fleming and co would have wanted from them after the bowlers had done their job early in the innings.

The free-flowing willow of Rahul Tripathi was cut short after a swinging delivery found the right-hander caught right in front with the replays suggesting that it was going well over the stumps. Steve Smith and Ajinkya Rahane had a good partnership before Rahane’s dismissal saw the scoring rate go down to lead the side chasing in a big dismay.

The run-rate which started at six and a half ended up at ten by the end of the 16th over which signified the sluggishness shown by the Pune batsmen.

4. Rohit Sharma’s captaincy:

It is quite glaring to see that Rohit Sharma had the better fielding placements and bowling changes than his counterpart. The Mumbaikar set such fields that it was tough for the batsmen to pick up runs at ease, be it singles or the doubles with the boundaries quite long at Hyderabad the Punekars had to work hard for every entry on the score board.

Who would have ever thought that Steve Smith would find the only fielder in the off-side despite having acres and acres of space free on the either side of the keeper? The skipper also switched his bowlers constantly not to allow the oppositions to get settled at the crease, be it with Bumrah, Malinga or Mitchell Johnson

5. Bumrah’s icy calm bowling

If there was one bowler in the league that any captain would trust in the death overs, it has to be the young Mumbai Indians bowler. In just two seasons, the right-arm pacer has transformed from just a swing bowler to one of the best in the world with his quality yorkers and slower deliveries at the end of the innings.

It was almost impossible for the Pune batsmen to smash runs off the right-arm bowler. The pacer constantly changed his pace despite the predictability of the deliveries. What the bowler also did well was the wide-yorkers that he bowled to Dhoni, a back of the length delivery resulted in the former Indian skipper’s wicket.