Indian Premier League 2017 News

Australia's Steve Smith opened up on his experience of captaining MS Dhoni in the IPL 2017.

A year ago, Indian cricket was going through a similar upheaval - when Virat Kohli was wearing the same shoes as Rohit Sharma. Indian cricket then wanted answers, and India cricket now still looking for answers.

On this day, Mumbai Indians (MI) clinched a thrilling one-run victory over the Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) in the final of 2017 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), becoming the first team to secure three title victories under their belt. In the 2016 edition of the tournament, both MI and RPS had failed to qualify for the playoffs. But, they made a remarkable turnaround in the following edition to seal the top two spots in the points table. It was the ‘Maharashtra Derby’ at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on May 21, 2017, and all eyes were set on whether MI will be able to break the jinx against RPS. After winning the toss, MI opted to bat first. However, the early dismissals of Parthiv Patel (3) and Lendl Simmons (4) by Jaydev Unadkat hurt their chances of having a flourish in the powerplay overs. After that, Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma initiated recovery with some delightful shots. However, both the batters, Rayudu (12) and Sharma (24) were dismissed within a space of three overs. The Australian pair of Adam Zampa and Daniel Christian dismissed Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya, respectively, which put MI on the backfoot, leaving the team stuttering at 78/6 by the 14th over. However, Krunal Pandya delivered his career-best knock of 47* off 38 balls, with three fours and two sixes, helping MI post a respectable total of 129 on the board. In reply, talented RPS youngster, Rahul Tripathi, was dismissed early by Jasprit Bumrah. The team’s leading run-scorer, Steve Smith and Ajinkya Rahane, provided a stable start to the team and laid a platform to chase down a below-par total. However, Mitchell Johnson got the breakthrough for Mumbai in the form of Rahane (44) in the 12th over, which put a little bit of pressure on RPS. With 31 needed in 22 balls, Manoj Tiwary came at the crease. The duo of Tiwary-Smith tried to take the game deep, but left 11 runs for the final over, which was delivered by Johnson. On the first ball of the over, Tiwary hit a boundary towards the square leg region and enhanced the chances of RPS’s win. However, in the subsequent delivery, he got holed out to Pollard on long-on. In the third ball, Smith tried to play an inside-out shot towards deep cover, giving a catch to Rayudu. Then the next two balls saw a single by Washington Sundar, and Christain took a double. With three needed off the last delivery, Christian could not connect the ball well and was run-out in pursuit of completing a double. With this, MI lifted their third title. Krunal walked away with the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his match-winning contribution. This fixture marked the lowest total ever defended in an IPL final with the narrowest margin of one run.

In a competitive tournament like the Indian Premier League, it’s not easy for any player or an opening duo to score runs consistently without losing their wickets. But, there have been many occasions wherein the players have succeeded in it.