Twitter Reactions: Arguably the best T20 team ever, Mumbai Indians bag their fifth IPL title

Mumbai Indians (MI) have become the second team in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to defend the title. They defeated the Delhi Capitals for the fourth time this season to lift the IPL trophy for the record fifth time. Their best players came to the fore in the crunch game yet again with Trent Boult and more importantly, the skipper Rohit Sharma shining in their respective departments.

Earlier, Shreyas Iyer was once again lucky with the coin toss and he opted to bat first in the big final. But Trent Boult, for the umpteenth time this season, once again hurt them with the new ball. He nipped out Marcus Stoinis with a sensational delivery off the first ball off the match. He continued to make the new ball talk and got the better of Ajinkya Rahane as well and then Jayant Yadav castled Shikhar Dhawan to leave DC reeling at 22/3 in the 4th over.

This is when Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant joined hands and they kind of counter-attacked the opposition. The latter kept his best knock to play in the final it seemed as he played some eye-catching strokes. Iyer also found his groove at the crucial time for his team. The 96-run partnership laid the perfect foundation for the Capitals to go big in the last five overs.

It was Nathan Coulter-Nile who broke the partnership nipping out Pant but not before he scored 56 off 38 balls. At the other end, Iyer also slammed a half-century. However, MI’s exceptional death bowling came to the fore on the day. While Bumrah was once again unplayable at the death, Boult came back to send back the dangerous Shimron Hetmyer.

The Capitals never got the final push and despite the Iyer smacked a six in the final over, they finished with 156 runs on the board in their 20 overs. They could score only 39 runs in the last five overs and lost three wickets. Bumrah finished wicketless but Boult, Coulter-Nile and Jayant Yadav were amongst the wickets for MI.

Clinical chase

The 156-run chase could’ve been tricky for the four-time champions. But their openers Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock were determined to take on the Delhi Capitals bowlers early on. They hit some lusty blows in the powerplay overs itself to add 45 runs in four overs. De Kock was the first one to go with Marcus Stoinis striking off the first ball of his spell.

But Rohit didn’t deter and continued to play his shots. Suryakumar Yadav came out and slammed a four and a six to get going. The duo kept MI ahead in the chase to add 46 runs more runs only for a horrible mix-up to end the partnership. In the 11th over, Rohit Sharma ran for a non-existent but Surya didn’t and the latter ended up sacrificing his wicket.

Rohit made sure though that he stayed in the middle to make sure his team gets close to the winning target. He also scored a half-century clicking at the perfect time for the team. However, he couldn’t remain unbeaten and got out after scoring 68 off 51 balls. The MI skipper had done his job by then and despite losing two more wickets in the end, the MI were on their way to lift the trophy for the fifth time.

Ishan Kishan once again stood as a rock to take the team home in the 19th over of the innings and remained unbeaten on 33 off 19 balls. MI were excellent in the final and their experience in the crunch game worked for them while the Capitals should be proud of their effort and will hope to comeback strong next season.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: