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On This Day In 2019: Mumbai Indians became the most successful IPL team by clinching their fourth title, surpassing Chennai Super Kings in a thrilling final in Hyderabad.
Mumbai Indians clinched the thrilling IPL 2019 final by 1 run. (Image: mipaltan/X, formerly Twitter)
On This Day In IPL 2019: From the initial years of bitter disappointments to unprecedented glory, the Mumbai Indians have had a remarkable and inspiring journey in the Indian Premier League. After enduring a bumpy ride and successive failures in the first five seasons of the IPL, Mumbai transformed into perhaps the most dominant T20 side on the globe with the joint-most number of IPL crowns to their name.
While their arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings can claim to have a similarly rich trophy cabinet, it was on this day that Mumbai jumped past MS Dhoni’s men for the first time to record the then unmatched fourth IPL title.
Having won the title in 2013, 2015 and 2017, skipper Rohit Sharma’s mighty juggernaut added the 2019 crown to their kitty by once again surpassing the Super Kings in a thrilling final played on the neutral turf of Hyderabad.
Mumbai Indians came out triumphant by just 1 run in arguably the most memorable summit clash played in IPL history, restricting the Super Kings to 148/7 in defence of their modest 149/8.
Rohit’s men made a remarkable fightback after being left in a precarious hole in the first half, where they were reduced to 89/4 in the 13th over on a two-paced surface. Desperately requiring their lower middle-order to fire, MI had experienced allrounder
Kieron Pollard playing a tremendous knock of 41* off 25 deliveries to revive his side. Pacer Deepak Chahar (3/26) and leg-spinner Imran Tahir (2/23) bowled superb spells to provide CSK an upper hand.
But on a pitch where batting only got more challenging, the Super Kings faced several hiccups along the way.
Their middle-order made no contribution of note as Dhoni’s yellow army rallied entirely on opener Shane Watson’s courageous 80 off 59 deliveries to keep them alive and take the game close. Left-arm pacer Mitchell McLenaghan (0/24), Jasprit Bumrah (2/14) and Rahul Chahar (1/14) never allowed CSK to get going in their stand-out bursts.
But the most memorable moment of the night came off the bowling of Sri Lankan great Lasith Malinga, who made amends on his expensive overs earlier on to produce a match-winning slower ball that hit CSK lower-order batter Shardul Thakur for a plumb LBW when the opposition needed 2 runs on the final ball.
MI’s fourth IPL title was backed by their fifth victory under former captain Rohit’s leadership reign at the height of Covid-19 with IPL 2020 in UAE. Since then, CSK have matched MI’s title wins with successful campaigns in 2021 and 2023.
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