Explained: How Mumbai Indians stunned RCB, RR to make unexpected late entry in IPL 2023 Playoffs amid crazy 3-way drama
Mumbai Indians overcame all the odds to leave behind Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals to enter the IPL 2023 Playoffs with GT, CSK and LSG.
After spending two years in the wilderness, Mumbai Indians are back in the IPL 2023 Playoffs. And boy oh boy, it took every bit of permutation and combination, hocus pocus and whatnot to make that happen. Gujarat Giants, Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants had already made it to the playoffs, and on Sunday it took every bit of drama to determine the fourth and final contender. MI, Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bangalore slugged it out in an insane three-way battle, and in the end, even though it went to the final league match of the season – the 70th game – five-time champions MI entered the top four, albeit within an inch of their lives.
What happened, who did what and how did everything pan out? We have got it covered. The last double-header of the season had everything up for grabs for MI and RCB, while RR had to just wait and watch. With all three teams sitting on 14 points, MI, RCB and RR needed different results to go their way. MI needed a win to qualify; RCB required one themselves. RR, well, were banking on both MI and RCB to lose, in order to go through, while hoping against all hopes for the net run rate to end up being superior to the other two. In the end, neither happened and the triple-threat contest narrowed down to a one-on-one battle, albeit against different opponents.
For MI, the equation was simple. To beat the woefully out-of-form Sunrisers Hyderabad. After losing the last tie against LSG, which could have given them an entry into the top 4 automatically, MI had no room for an upset. However, the manner in which SRH batted, it looked definitely on the cards. Vivant Sharma and Mayank Agarwal struck mighty-impressive half-centuries as SRH plundered 200/5, putting MI under the pump. But thankfully for Rohit Sharma and Co., the Wankhede pitch remained equally good for batting in the second innings. Rohit led the chase from the front and smashed his second half-century of the season. Despite losing Ishan Kishan cheaply, Rohit found the middle of his bat and easily played his best IPL innings of the last three seasons.
Rohit, along with Cameron Green put on 128 in 10.1 overs as MI raced away, and even though once Rohit's carnage came to an end, Green took over, bludgeoning 8 fours and 8 sixes en route to scoring his first IPL century and the fastest of this season – off 47 balls. Suryakumar Yadav played his part spanking 25 off 16 balls with four fours as MI chased down the total with two full overs to spare. However, as comprehensive as the win was, MI's net run-rate of -0.044 remained well below RCB's +0.135. Hence, it was not enough, MI's fate rested on the outcome of the last league match – RCB against Gujarat Titans at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Watch: Anushka Sharma blows multiple kisses, Hardik’s incredible gesture after Kohli smashes back-to-back IPL centuries
But hang on… there was more drama. Bengaluru had been witnessing powerful spells of showers since Saturday and the belief was that the match may not take place at all, in the case of which, both teams would be awarded a point each and it could be curtains once again for RCB. There were fears of those dreams getting realised when it was still drizzling at the scheduled 7 PM toss time. Thankfully rain relented, and even though it returned briefly right after a delayed toss, the match got underway with no overs lost.
After GT captain Hardik Pandya put RCB in, it was fireworks right… once again from the bat of none other than Virat Kohli. The same Kohli, who got three golden ducks in the last season of the IPL, creamed back-to-back centuries and scripted a special record. With his unbeaten 101 off 61 balls, Kohli became the leading centurion in the history of the IPL with 7 hundreds, surpassing the legendary Chris Gayle's six. Having said that, alarmingly, no other batter chipped in, which meant that RCB fell short of the 200-bracket by three runs. 197 is still a good score but given the dimensions of the Chinnaswamy, it wasn't exactly safe.
A nervy GT began their chase with Wriddhiman Saha appearing all over the place against Mohammed Siraj. Once his uncomfortable innings of 14-ball 12 came to an end, Shubman Gill, who had started striking the ball well, was joined by Vijay Shankar. RCB snuck in some quiet overs, during which Shankar was initially tied down but Gill was smashing the ball in full flow. Together, they put on a valuable 123-run partnership off 11.5 overs. Shankar went 4, 4, 6 before holding out to Kohli in the deep, before Siraj took out the dangerous David Miller to an off-side trap.
But just when it mattered the most, RCB stumbled, giving away way too many loose deliveries for Gill to go bonkers. A length ball from Siraj was dispatched into the crowd and as was a full toss from Harshal Patel. In the end, Gill and GT needed 8 to win off the last over, and when Wayne Parnell bowled a no-ball, followed by a wide, Gill, then batting on 98, whipped his 8th six to finish the match, crush RCB's hearts and trigger euphoria in the Mumbai Indians camp some 500 kms away. Incidentally, last season, RCB's qualification to the playoffs required assist from MI. This year, albeit indirectly, it was the other way around.
