Mumbai Indians achieved the distinction of being IPL champions (IPL 2013) for the first time under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. Mumbai actually was beaten by CSK in the Qualifier 1 by 48 runs and hence had to beat Rajasthan Royals ( who beat SRH in eliminator) in the qualifier 2 by 4 wickets to reach the final .
In the final match played 7 years ago , Mumbai Indians defeated the strongest team of the tournament, Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs. On the historic ground of Eden Gardens, the Mumbai Indians team could score only 148 runs in 20 overs but Dhoni and Co. could only score 125 runs in the stipulated 20 overs and lost the title match. The reason for this defeat of Chennai was not only their poor batting, but somewhere behind it was the strategy of captain Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming.
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The Mumbai Indians team landed on the field with a young captain like Rohit Sharma. In the title match, the toss of the coin was in the hands of Rohit and he decided to bat first. Mumbai’s start was very poor. Dwayne Smith 4 and captain Rohit Sharma got out after scoring just 2 runs. Aditya Tare returned to the pavilion on the very first ball.
Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu handled the team but when it came to scoring fast runs, Karthik got out. Ambati Rayudu scored 37 runs in 36 balls and he became the victim of Bravo. Kieron Pollard became the Messiah of Mumbai, who scored an unbeaten 60 runs in just 32 balls. Pollard hit 3 sixes and 7 fours in his innings. In this way Mumbai’s score reached 148 runs in 20 overs.
Chasing the target, the Chennai team needed a good start, but Malinga gave them two shocks in the very first over. On the second ball, Malinga bowled Hussey and Suresh Raina was dismissed on the very first ball. In the second over, Subrahmanyam Badrinath was also dismissed for zero by Mitchel Johnson . Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja and Murali Vijay were also dismissed after batting poorly. The Chennai team lost its 6 wickets for 39 runs in 7.3 overs against the lethal fast bowling of the two left armers Malinga & Johnson. After this, Chennai’s score crossed 50 and its two best all-rounders Albie Morkel and Chris Morris also lost their wickets. Chennai lost 8 wickets for 58 runs. After this Dhoni started hitting fast and brought Chennai’s score close to 100 but Ashwin lost his wicket in the 18th over. In the end, Dhoni did a lot of hitting and scored an unbeaten 63 in 45 balls but his team lost the match and Mumbai achieved the distinction of becoming IPL champions for the first time. Malinga , Johnson and Harbhajan had taken 2 wickets each for Mumbai.
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Dhoni made a mistake in this match that he came down to bat at number 7. He fielded Jadeja and Bravo ahead of himself. Although coach Stephen Fleming said that Dhoni had won many matches for the team by coming at number 7, so he played at this number.