Mumbai Indians players celebrate after winning the IPL final in Dubai.

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Mumbai Indians

157/5

Run Rate: 8.41

Overs: 18.4/20

Mumbai Indians won by 5 wickets.

Delhi Capitals

156/7

Run Rate: 7.80

Overs: 20/20

Rohit Sharma led from the front as Mumbai Indians (MI) clinched a record-fifth Indian Premier League (IPL) title to maintain their stranglehold on the tournament with Delhi Capitals’ rout in Dubai on Tuesday.

Chasing a target of 157, Mumbai knocked down the winning run for the loss of five wickets with eight balls to spare. Delhi did try to make some in-roads through their bowlers, failed to take the wicket on regular intervals in their defence of a modest total.

Rohit was back in the groove as he smashed a blitzkrieg 51-ball 68 to take them over the line. Both Quinton De Kock and Rohit gave Mumbai a blazing start to set the tone for a successful chase. The Mumbai openers put on 45 runs for the first wicket in just 4.1 overs to facilitate the chase.

Stoinis gave Delhi first breakthrough by getting rid of de Kock, which brought some temporary respite to the Delhi camp. Surya Kumar Yadav and Rohit kept the juggernaut rolling with a 45 runs partnership, taking Mumbai near the target.

Earlier, Delhi were not even a pale shadow of themselves and got off to a nightmarish start. Boult rip through the top order to push Delhi on the back foot from the beginning. He triggered the skid with the wicket of the last match hero Marcus Stoinis, who was caught behind the wicket for a duck while trying to work a rising away to the third man.

He was beaten by the sheer pace. Stoinis was adjudged man of the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for his all-round performance as he had scored against a quick-fire 38 and taken three wickets.

Delhi, who got their campaign off to a stellar start, were lucky to have reached the final despite losing five out of their last seven matches.

Their campaign was derailed by a series of losses and at one stage found themselves in peril of losing out on a knockout berth even. In the later-half of the tournament, they failed to get the opening combination right.

In his second over, the Kiwi pacer came back with more fire in his belly. He got rid of Rahane to make it 16-2. Delhi were in deep trouble but the worse was to come.

Jayant Yadav rattled the stumps of Delhi’s top scorer of the season Shikhar Dhawan to leave them in tatters. Delhi were reduced to 22/3.
They needed a big partnership.

Captain Shreyas Iyer and Rishab Pant knuckled down to steady the ship.

The duo played sensibly to anchor the stuttering inning.

The left and the right combination of Delhi, did not allow Mumbai’s bowler to settle down and played their shots freely all over the ground.

Neither the pair could be intimidated by the lethal pace and nor foxed by the wily spin. They frustrated the bowlers as Mumbai failed to capitalize on their dream start.

The duo shared a 96-run partnership to pull Delhi out of the rot and take the score past 118 in 16 overs. Pant was more brutal of the two.

He smashed two consecutive boundaries off Coulter-Nile to bring up his fifty. He holed out to Hardik at deep fine leg off Coulter-Nile. His innings was studded with four boundaries and one six.

After the departure of Pant, the onus of taking Delhi to a fighting total fell on Iyer. He kept the momentum going and raced to his fifty with a couple. He smashed six boundaries and two sixes. During his stint at the crease.

But toward the end of the innings, Delhi lost quite a few wicket in quick succession as they could manage to muster 156/7 in 20 overs.
Coulter–Nile and Boult took two and three wickets respectively.

More to follow...