When Dhoni is captaining a side & they are in a final, you do have a feeling that CSK has the edge under charismatic leader. When you look into Sachin, that too injured Sachin who is not very fit for the match you feel will it be a one more so near still so far for Sachin. There are so many romantic stories on field with Sachin which ended with sad ending. Alas! yesterday one more story ended with sad ending for Sachin's Mumbai Indian. They have played such a good cricket in this IPL that they created a different level for themselves something you compare with invincible Auusies under Steve Waugh.
But credit to given to CSK, they done the basics correct. Selected a team with their strengths i.e. spin bowling. When Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat they never got carried away with the euphoria of final. They played calm & composed cricket at the start, gauged the wicket well and at the end they played slam bang shots which help them to a score of 168 which any team batting first can take in DY Patil stadium and that too in finals. Sluggish fielding is one of the reason for score reaching to 168 but credit goes to Dhoni's boys as they paced their innings as the doctor ordered.
Once CSK have made 168, which is around 20 runs more trhan what Dhoni was targetting it all left with smart cookie Dhoni to rotate his bowlers tactically. They have the best spin attack with Ashwin & Jakati did justice to the faith shown by CSK team management. Old fox is as always at his best and that too its final so he has to produce goods.
Though I think that this match could have been won if MI would have paced the chase more properly. They should have accelerated with Abhishek Nayar little earlier than when he started hitting sixes, Latter on Pollard should have been on crease after Sachin got out. It was atrocious that Duminy came before Pollard when only 6 odd overs left. Primarily because Duminy is mainly placer of the ball and where as Pollard is a big hitter of the ball. Later on when Pollard came asking rate was humongous still he tried to turn the match on his head but it was highly unlikely possible at that juncture.
CSK is well deserve winner as they done the basics well and played calculative cricket which is unfortunately MI didn't do in the final.
Feels bad for Sachin but as Sachin the iconic player of Mumbai Indian has announced that he will play next edition of IPL so looking forward to see Mumbai Indians winning IPL in next edition with Sachin having winning trophy with beaming smile.
It has been almost a year
10 years ago
