Mumbai Indians crowned Champion of Champions

Mumbai Indians became the winner of the Champions League T20 for the second time in the history of the tournament when they overcame the challenge of Rajasthan Royals at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. They beat the unbeaten and the most consistent team of the championship by 33 runs to emerge victorious.

Dwayne Smith turned out to be star performer with the bat for one more time as he scored a blistering 44 at the start of the Mumbai innings. The rest of the batsmen capitalized on the platform set by Smith to impose a mammoth total of 202 for the loss of 6 wickets. Captain Rohit Sharma contributed with a crucial 33 while Glen Maxwell dazzled with the bat later in the innings to score a quick fire 37 and take Mumbai to such a huge total.

Rajasthan Royals, without their star performer Brad Hodge, began in the right note despite losing an early wicket. Ajinkya Rahane once again came good with the bat and scored a valuable 65. He was well supported at the other end by Sanju Samson who also recorded a good score of 60. The duo notched up a 111-run partnership for the 2^nd wicket as RR reached 117 in just 12 overs.  However Harbhajan Singh came on and put the brakes on the RR batting picking up 3 wickets in the 17^th over. Royals’ innings folded up in 18.5 overs with the scoreboard reading 169, 33 runs short of the target set by MI. Harbhajan ended with match figures of 32/4 in his overs as he was adjudged the man of the match. Dwayne Smith got the award of the Champion of the series. Rahane picked up the golden bat while Praven Tambe got the golden wicket award for his consistency with the ball in hand.

Incidentally the match turned out to be an emotional one for the fans of cricket as two of the all time greats bade farewell to their career. While Rahul Dravid made his last appearance as a cricketer in any format of the game, it was also Sachin Tendulkar’s final T-20 match.

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About Argha Ghosh

An ardent follower of sports and die-hard Manchester United fan, Argha's ultimate dream is to watch a Manchester derby from the Stretford End at the Old Trafford.