On a night of mediocre cricket, the Mumbai Indians kept their surprise
run going to win the biggest prize, in financial terms, in
non-international cricket. James Franklin was the only man to keep his
head in a suicidal Mumbai innings, which helped them reach 139, but the
Royal Challengers Bangalore once again choked in a final to lose despite
a start of 38 for 0 in four overs. For the vanquished this was a
painful repeat of their IPL final in Johannesburg where they froze while chasing 144.
The victors, though, can claim they once again won the big moments:
through Franklin's sober innings, through Lasith Malinga's two sixes
amid a collapse, through an extra over given to Malinga that produced a
wicket and through their spinners' seven overs for 29 runs and five
wickets
Be that as it may, for a majority of the match the teams seemed to be in
a contest for ordinary cricket. There were three run-outs, there were
unsavoury slogs resulting in exposed stumps, the winning side bowled 10
out of a total of 13 wides, and MI's' keeper kept letting through byes.
If Franklin's smart 41 off 29 suggested he was the only sober man in a
Paris Hilton party, the Royal Challengers clearly outdid their opponents
for rashness. Yes the pitch was slow and it took turn, but not enough
to justify the bizarre and spectacular collapse, which featured minimal
attempts to take singles with the asking-rate around seven.
MI didn't even know there was turn in the pitch for them. As Dilshan hit
the ground running in the chase, they made a necessary departure from
their usual ways of bowling Malinga for only two overs at the top.
Dilshan's 27 until then had come off shots either through the line or
through the covers, and he would have known how desperately MI would
have wanted a wicket off what then seemed like a last roll of the dice.
As it turned out, he swung across the line of a full first delivery,
losing his off stump.
Kumar Dharmasena then made a potentially match-turning call. He had
already got two lbw calls wrong in MI's innings, first reprieving
Harbhajan Singh when he was plumb, then ruling him out when he wasn't.
But his most consequential mistake was during the chase and again
involved Harbhajan, who fired in quick offbreaks in his first over. The
last ball of the over, in which he had conceded just a wide, was tossed
up, and Chris Gayle got a big stride in. The offbreak didn't turn as
much as expected, hit him in front of off, and he was ruled out. The
ball had a massive distance to travel, and the ball-tracking predicted
it would have hit the outside of off stump. Conventional wisdom would
have ruled it in the batsman's favour, and even Gayle lost his cool when
he saw the finger come up.
With an unreliable batting order, pampered by the true Bangalore surface
and short boundaries, to follow, it was down to the only survivor of
the Royal Challengers' 2009 choke, Virat Kohli, to shepherd the rest
through. However, he found himself batting with a trigger-happy Mayank
Agarwal, who despite all his attempts at power hitting managed 14 off 19
before holing out to long-off. Even when the desperate Agarwal got out,
the Royal Challengers needed a manageable 73 off 57.
Kohli felt the pinch too. Perhaps it was the presence of Malinga in the
end, perhaps it was just the shock of having to work hard for runs after
the flat Bangalore pitch, but even he didn't show the willingness to
take the game to the deep end. In the next over he holed out to deep
midwicket. Everybody knew it was game over there and then.
The rest were just a blurry procession of catching and stumping
practice, a complete contrast to how Franklin managed a strike-rate of
close to 150 without a shot hit in anger. There was no dearth of madness
around him either. Sarul Kanwar first ran Aiden Bliazzard out before
slogging around a full delivery. Ambati Rayudu struggled to find singles
in the middle, and a positive 40-run stand with Suryakumar Yadav ended
with a run-out.
Franklin ensured the trend continued, hesitating during a second run to
complete the third run-out. Kieron Pollard's massive leading edge
travelled as far as long-off, and MI were in a tailspin after looking
good for a repeat of their 160 from the semi-final. Although it didn't
look enough at the moment, Malinga's two sixes in the end turned out to
be surplus.
Both teams were fined for slow over-rates. Harbhajan, the MI captain,
was fined US$3,000 and each MI player $1,500 for being two overs behind
the required over-rate. The Royal Challengers players were fined $750
and their captain Vettori $1,500 for being one over behind the required
rate.
