Mumbai Indians were crowned the Indian
Premier League (IPL) champions for the third time after Mitchell Johnson
delivered a three-wicket final over to help secure their thrilling one-run
victory over Rising Pune Supergiant in the final on Sunday.
Australia's former Ashes hero Johnson dismissed Manoj Tiwary and
Smith off successive deliveries while Dan Christian ran himself out in the
final ball of the over which yielded nine runs.
Smith topscored for his side with 51 off 50 balls while Ajinkya
Rahane made 44 upfront but Pune never got the late assault despite having wickets
in hand and finished 128-6.
Johnson claimed 3-26 while his pace colleagues Jasprit Bumrah
(2-26) and Lasith Malinga, who went wicketless but conceded only 21 runs in his
four overs, were equally impressive in defending a modest total.
Mumbai went
into the match having lost their previous three matches, including Tuesday's
qualifier, against Pune this season and the 129-8 they managed on Sunday looked
far from an intimidating score.
Mumbai
skipper Rohit Sharma opted to bat but they looked in trouble after Jaydev
Unadkat (2-19) dismissed both the openers cheaply to deny them a strong start.
Mumbai
crawled to 56-3 at the halfway stage of their innings when Adam Zampa struck
twice in the same over to wreck their hopes of a big total.
The Australian leg-spinner dismissed
Rohit with the first delivery of his over with Shardul Thakur taking a
well-judged catch near the rope and the spinner's sixth sent back Kieron
Pollard.
Mumbai were
reeling at 79-7 but Krunal Pandya topscored for them with a belligerent 47
before falling to the final delivery of the innings.
"It
was a great game of cricket and I hope the crowd enjoyed it," Rohit said.
"To
defend such a modest total, the first thing you need is self-belief and I told
the boys we can do it. It was a great effort by the team, hats off to
them."
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