Tags
#ChennaiSuperKings, #IndianPremierLeague, #IPL, #MIvCSK, #MumbaiIndians, #RohitSharma, #WorldCup, Cricket
60 Matches, 18,332 runs, 692 sixes and 686 wickets.
The IPL 2015 was a roller coaster of a tournament as always. It started off with the Mumbai Indians losing their first four games, the Rajasthan Royals shooting to the top and the other teams scrambling around in the middle.
It was the perfect tournament to sweeten up any bitter taste between international rivals from the World Cup as players from all over joined forces to compete. It was particularly interesting to see Virat Kohli and Mitchell Starc on the same team and Shikhar Dhawan with David Warner. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Wahab Riaz playing for the Royals with Shane Watson.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore also started off their campaign poorly, especially considering their batting line-up. However, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle both scored incredible centuries and put their team back on track for the playoffs.
The most surprising results came from the Kings XI Punjab who won a grand total of three of their group stage games. It was a particularly poor show from such a strong team. With the likes of David Miller, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Johnson and Glen Maxwell they were expected to do much better. Especially considering they only lost three games in their 2014 campaign.
It was an extraordinarily close season with the games up until the last day affecting the qualifiers. So close that the winners of IPL 7 (Kolkata Knight Riders) missed out on qualifying by just one point. Sunrisers Hyderabad were unlucky to not qualify considering the start the Mumbai had.
The eighth season of the Indian Premier League finally came to an end on Sunday the 24th of February. The final was between two of the strongest, largest and most successful T20 teams in the world. The Mumbai Indians versus the Chennai Super Kings. Teams that sat at opposite ends of the table halfway through the tournament. The Mumbai Indians had already beaten the Chennai Super Kings in the first qualifier match and they were ready for round two.
MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first. It was a great start for them as Parthiv Patel was run out very early. However, Lendl Simmons and skipper Rohit Sharma rose to the challenge and put on an incredible 120-run partnership. They were backed up well by Kieron Pollard and Ambati Rayudu who helped Mumbai reach 202 runs. Ashish Nehra who had picked up the best bowling figures of the tournament ended with an economy of 10.25.
10+ runs an over from ball one was always going to be a tough ask, especially with the pressure of an IPL final on it. It appeared too big a task for CSK. Dwayne Smith scored a wonderful 57 but no other batsmen contributed anything above 30. It was in all, a fairly poor performance from a strong team and Mumbai won by 41 runs.