On this day in 2013: Mumbai Indians win their first IPL title defeating CSK
26th May 2013 was the beginning of a reign that has grown by leaps and bounds with every passing year in IPL cricket. For, on this date, the Mumbai Indians (MI) side beat the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) outfit by 23 runs to win the IPL title for the first time.
In a low scoring encounter, the Mumbai outfit won the toss and decided to wield the willow first. The Mumbai top order collapsed, and the ‘Men in Blue’ were reeling at 52/4 after 9.3 overs. But then, Kieron Pollard came to the rescue of the Mumbai side.
The gigantic West Indian pummeled 60 runs at a strike rate of 187.50 to provide the final flourish to the Mumbai side and helped them post a competitive total of 148/9 on the board. For Chennai, even though Dwayne Bravo was on the expensive side, he was the man who put the brakes on the Mumbai batting line up with the ball by picking up wickets at regular intervals. The right-arm pacer bowled 4 overs, gave away 42 runs and scalped 4 wickets.
The Chennai side started the run chase in a disastrous fashion. The ‘Yellow Brigade’ was reduced to 3/3 within the first 2 overs itself, with Michael Hussey, Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath back in the pavilion.
The trouble continued for CSK as the middle order failed to step up as well, and the MS Dhoni-led outfit was reduced to 39/6 inside 8 overs. And, if there was one man who saved CSK from humiliation, it was the skipper, MS Dhoni himself.
The legendary cricketer was the only batsman who took the fight to the opposition and scored an unbeaten 63 off 45 deliveries. After Dhoni, the next highest run-scorer for Chennai was Murali Vijay, who scored 18. And, at the end of their allotted 20 overs, the CSK side could only muster a total of 125/9, with Dhoni scoring more than half the runs scored by his side.
Almost all the Mumbai bowlers did a wonderful job with the ball. Harbhajan Singh was the pick of the bowlers and picked up 2 wickets in the 3 overs that he bowled and gave away 14 runs. Mitchell Johnson and Lasith Malinga also scalped a couple of wickets as well.
26th May 2013 marked the commencement of a surreal run for the Mumbai side in the IPL. After 2013, the Rohit Sharma led outfit has won 4 more IPL titles and can stake claim to being the greatest IPL franchise in history.
