Aggressive Mumbai end title drought
Kept alive by Kieron Pollard's fighting 60 off 32, the Mumbai Indians bowlers attacked their way to a first IPL title
Kept alive by Kieron Pollard's fighting 60 off 32, the Mumbai Indians bowlers attacked their way to a first IPL title
Scorer: Gopi Rangarajan | Commentator: Suneer Chowdhary
That, as they say, is the end of that. The IPL 2013 bandwagon is over and the evenings will never be the same again...at least for a few days till the Champions Trophy kick-starts from next month. I am done too this evening and for the tournament, hope you had a decent time following us throughout the season. Suneer Chowdhary signing off from here, hope you have a good night.
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Presentation
Saina Nehwal's a part of the presentation party. N Srinivasan's there too.
Kieron Pollard wins the man of the match award.
Pollard: Good to play some of your best cricket against the best IPL team. I thank my family and the crowd for backing us. I have to try and take responsibility and it came off today.
Mumbai, Punjab and Rajasthan have shared the best ground and pitch award for five or more games.
Gurkeerat Singh wins the catch of the tournament, a diving catch at fine-leg off a Ross Taylor hook. Sanju Samson wins the best young player of the tournament award.
Samson: Feel very lucky to be a part of Rajasthan, allowed them to express myself. Great experience to bat with 'Rahul sir', or Hodge or Watson.
Chennai Super Kings win the Fairplay Award.
Michael Hussey wins the Orange Cap. Dwayne Bravo wins the Purple Cap.
Hussey: Good fun but couldn't do the business on the final-day. Thoroughly enjoyed playing for CSK and hopefully can continue playing for them.
Bravo: Thanks to the fans for coming for the game, congratulations to Mumbai Indians, unfortunately for us we came out second. Good to know Dhoni trusted my ability and I enjoyed the challenge.
Shane Watson wins the MVP award. 386 points for him, which is apparently more than all others.
Stephen Fleming collects the runner-up award.
I think we are getting closer to the end now...thanks for your patience.
MS Dhoni comes up to collect the runner-up cheque.
Dhoni: I think the batting department failed, Huss and Raina got out to good balls but the rest of them played some bad shots. Was important to get some partnership going but did not. Think we did well to restrict them to 148 because we had the depth in our batting. First time we weren't under pressure going into the last stage of the league matches.
John Wright comes up to collect the winner's award. And now Rohit Sharma comes up to collect the winner's cheque for Rs.10 crores.
Rohit Sharma: Captaincy was a good challenge and it's been a great experience and a learning curve. We knew we haven't won the title for the last five years but this time we were very determined, credit goes to all the players and staff involved. Plan was to bowl our strike bowler at their best batsmen. I want to thank everyone who supported us.
Rohit and Ricky Ponting collect the trophy from the BCCI President, N Srinivasan.
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...in the favour of Mumbai Indians, who have won their first ever IPL! This has been the most convincing win too! Lot of dancing, with Harbhajan Singh leading them from the front!
Karthik calls it one of the happiest days of his life. Ojha calls it an outstanding feeling to have won the IPL for the second time (after winning it for the Deccan Chargers).
Ojha, on his sprint after getting the wicket of Morkel, says he wanted to prove a point that he can bowl to left-handers.
The Mumbai Indians are on a lap of honour with Sachin Tendulkar being lifted by his players yet again.
Anil Kumble says his role was to keep the environment good in the dressing room. Credits John Wright as well, who says he's delighted for the boys. Wright also calls it a tough, two-month long tournament and adds the team got stronger as the tournament progressed.
Wright credits Ricky Ponting, Robin Singh and Nitin Patel and all his backroom staff for the win.
Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting in an interview now. Tendulkar says this was going to be his last IPL! That's a big announcement! Ponting says he was looking to keep up with the younger guys in the team.
Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson now. Johnson says he enjoyed himself, especially bowling with 'Mali'. Calls it a great feeling to have won his first edition of the IPL. Malinga admits he did not do much earlier last two games but is happy to have bowled well in the final.
Harbhajan joins the duo now and says he's happy to proven many people wrong. Says he has bowled well and taken wickets and proved it those, who he asks "to go and have a look at their own record"! Fiesty!
Tendulkar calls it the right time to end playing the IPL and reveals he had decided to do that before the tournament. Gavaskar tempts him with an offer of playing one more game next season at Wankhede before calling it quits.
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Karl Correa: "Mumbai Indians have against all odds scripted a fantastic M.I (ipl) VI. I am absolutely ecstatic and thrilled as a Mumbaite (Mumbaikar). They have defeated a team with players who scored the most runs as well as the highest wickets. But an all round effort from Mumbai has gotten them to lift the title for the first time!! Wohooooooo!!"
Om: "So Dhoni scores 63 and the remaining 10 batsmen score 62. Interesting equation."
kartik Reddy: "In hindsight Dhoni should have come ahead of Jadeja, just like he came ahead of Yuvraj in world cup final."
Rayudu and Pollard call it an unbelievable feeling, Pollard had Karthik hanging on him before Ojha's run in screaming too!
Ramachandran R: "I wonder why everybody keeps saying "Dhoni was left all alone to accomplish the job..." If he had come after the lose of Bravo's wicket, he could have certainly stopped the wickets fall and would have built a partnership with Vijay too. Who asked him to come way down at 7 with only the bowlers to bat with??"
Manu Ajmani: "Sachin, Rahul last IPL!"
Murali J: "MI made the mistake dropping Pollard down the order last time and CSK complemented theirs by dropping Dhoni down.."
Tejas: "To quote LeBron James after he won his first NBA title last year : "It's about damn time!""
MieGoreng: "Congratulations to Maxwell for the year of his life! A trophy and 1 million plus in one calendar year!"
Saftar: "Think Pragyan Ohja, the third international player to won IPL trophies for two different franchises after Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf pathan."
Taking time to set the field. I have no clue why. Lot of smiles around now.
The Mumbai Indians needed a competitive total against the tournament favourites in the 2013 final. One man stepped up
The IPL final takes place in Kolkata on Sunday, but all the news surrounding the tournament is about events off the field
Everybody in the IPL tried their best to ignore it even as it defecated prodigiously
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has admitted leading his team was "tough" after Ricky Ponting stepped aside from captaincy in the initial stages of the tournament
Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming has said he was "perfectly happy" with where MS Dhoni batted in the IPL final against Mumbai Indians and stated that the captain batted at No. 7 because he was there to win the game for the team