Reliving the magical moments of the Indian Premier League Final, over the years

10. Mumbai Indians vs Rising Pune Supergiant – IPL 2017

This final is recent of all the finals. RPS performed exceptionally well under Steve Smith who took over the captaincy reigns from MS Dhoni. Both the finalists finished in the top two positions on the points table. RPS was the first team to enter the final as they defeated MI in the first qualifier game. The Mumbai Indians went on to defeat the Kolkata Knight Riders in the second qualifier to enter the finals.

Although it was a very low-scoring final, the game was high in intensity. Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to field first. There were not many noticeable performances from the Mumbai batsmen except for Krunal Pandya. He scored 47 in 38 balls to take MI to a respectable total. In their 20 overs, MI only managed to put 129 runs on the board. It looked tough for them to win the game halfway through the innings.

Chasing a paltry target of 30, the RPS looked the favorites to win the game when they scored 71 runs in 12 overs for the loss of only two wickets. Steve Smith played an uncharacteristic knock as he scored 51 off 50 deliveries in a T20 game. Often regarded the best finisher, MS Dhoni also couldn’t make much of a difference as he perished after scoring 10 runs from 13 balls. Also, RPS clearly missed the services of Ben Stokes who missed out playing the finals due to national duties. He was one of the top performers for them throughout the season.

Top performers of the season

In a nail-biting last over, Mumbai managed to take home the trophy for the third time after they won by just one run. This was the third time they won the title, the most by any team. Krunal Pandya was the ‘Man of the Match’ while Ben Stokes was the ‘Most Valuable Player’ of the season.

Brief Scores:
MI: 129/8 in 20 overs ( Krunal Pandya 47, Rohit Sharma 24, Jaydev Unadkat 2/19)
RPS: 128/6 in 20 overs ( Steve Smith 51, Ajinkya Rahane 44, Mitchell Johnson 3/26)