IPL 2019

IPL 2019

So after 50 days IPL  2019 tournament ended and what  a tournament it was. So first time in the league matches three teams had the  same points, and their ranking was decided on the net run rate, and it was first time also that team which won only 6 out of 14 matches ended on no. 4 position.

So in the end teams who finished on no. 1 & no. 2 in the league table reached the finals, and the teams were Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and what a final match it turned out to be. There were many close games in  IPL 2019 and the final match also lived up to the reputation.

MI won the toss and elected to bat:

They opened their innings with De Cock & Rohit Sharma and both started scoring briskly and took the score to 45 in 4.5 overs when  de Cock was out caught Dhoni off SN Thakur for 29 (17 balls, 4 sixes), and at the same score Rohit was also out caught Dhoni off D Chahar for 15 (14 balls, 1 four, 1 six). After their departure there was lull in scoring , as  Ishan Kishan & Surya Kumar Yadav added just 37 runs in 6 overs. After that there  was only  one partnership worth 39 runs for 6^th wicket between Ishan Kishan & Kieron Pollard. MI innings ended at 149 in 20 overs, with Kieron Pollard remaining not out at 41 (25 balls, 3 fours, 3 sixes). CSK bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict MI to 149, with D Chahar 3/26, Imran Tahir 2/23.

There was common perception in everyone’s mind that the score of 150 will be an easy target for CSK in 20 overs and they started very well with  du Plesis and Shane Watson and scored 33 runs in 3.5 overs, and on the last ball of 4^th over du Plesis was stumped by de Cock off Krunal Pandya for 26 (13 balls, 3 fours, 1 six). Raina joined Watson, but after the fall of 1^st wicket and restrictive bowling of MI rate of scoring went down and CSK could reach only 70 runs (9.2 overs) when Raina was lbw to Rahul Chahar for only 8 runs. Next man Rayudu also did not last long and he was caught by de Cock off Bumrah for  1 (score 73 in 10.3 overs). Now with more than half the overs consumed Dhoni joined Watson and everyone’s feeling was that both of them will take CSK to winning target, as both the batsmen were in quite good form during IPL 2019, but this was not meant to be, as at the score of 82 Dhoni was declared run out. It was such a touch & go affair that 3^rd umpire had to watch the replay from so many angles to  ascertain whether Dhoni’s bat had crossed the popping crease, in the end 3^rd Umpire declared him run out. This happened in  12.4 overs. Now Dwayne bravo joined Watson and in next 5.4 overs they added 51 runs. During this time they were on rampage  during two overs, one bowled by Lasith Malinga and other by Krunal Pandya, when batsmen took 20 odd runs from each over. Then at the score of 133 Bravo was  caught by de Cock off Bumrah for 15. Now the equation for CSK was to score 17 runs in 10 balls, and by the time 19^th over ended, it was 9 runs in 6 balls.

Now to bowl last over the death over specialist Lasith Malinga was called by  captain Rohit Sharma. In the first  four balls CSK could score 5 runs, but in the process they lost their well set batsman Watson, who was run out 80 runs (59 balls, 8 fours, 4 sixes). It so happened to keep the strike Watson ran for non existing run. Now the situation was 2 balls and 4 runs needed for victory. The new batsman at crease was  Shradul Thakur, on the 5^th bowled by Malinga he scored 2 runs, and now CSK needed 2 runs from last ball to win the match. The experienced Maling bowled the last ball which happened to be perfect Yorker, and Thakur was beaten and ball hit his foot and there was loud appeal for lbw and which was upheld by Umpire, and thus MI won the last ball thriller by one run.  When the last ball was about to be bowled, situation was so tense in the stadium, that fans of both the teams were praying. The owner of MI Ms Nita  Ambani had closed her eyes and praying, and she opened the eyes only after her team won the match.

And the best comment came from CSK captain Dhoni, who said “ it was funny game in which two teams kept passing trophy to each other during the match”. Which only meant that match was so close that it was any body’s game till the last ball.

Jasprit Bumrah for his spell of 4-0-14-2, was declared man of match .

David Warner won the Orange cap for scoring 692 runs in IPL 2019, and Imran Tahir won the Purple cap for taking 26 wickets in IPL 2019. Andre Russel was declared Most Valuable Player of this season, and Kieron Pollard won the award for the Perfect Catch of the season.

So till  IPL 2019.

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Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

13^th May 2019