MS Dhoni failed to fire on Sunday as Chennai lost to Mumbai a run
Mumbai Indians won a closely contested IPL 2019 final on the very last ball for a sensational one-run victory against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Shane Watson's 80 off 59 balls nearly took Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team home, but the Australian all-rounder got run out in the last over as Mumbai restricted Chennai to 148/7 -- a run short of Mumbai's total of 149/8.
Earlier, after winning the toss and electing to bat first, Kieron Pollard's unbeaten 41 off 25 deliveries had lifted Mumbai to 149/8 to give Mumbai a chance to win the game.
Seamer Deepak Chahar picked up 3/26 while Imran Tahir (2/23) and Shardul Thakur (2/37) shared four wickets between them to make sure Mumbai don't get away after a flying start.
Watson's belligerent knock, which featured eight fours and four sixes, left Chennai needing nine runs off Lasith Malinga's last over.
However, Watson attempted to retain the strike off the fourth delivery and got run out and Thakur was trapped leg before wicket off the last ball.
And, Dhoni after the game felt that Chennai had a good season but there are places where CSK could have played better and was critical of the batsmen.
"As a team we had a good season. But we need to go back and reflect on how we reached the finals. It's not one of those years where we played really great cricket to reach here," Dhoni said.
"The middle order wasn't great, and in IPLs it is very funny as to how both these teams are only passing on the trophies from one team to the other. Both teams made a lot of mistakes, they made one lesser mistake," he added.
Dhoni praised the bowlers for doing well and said that they did their bit in this year's tournament but it was the batting that didn't click.
"I think the bowlers did really well for us, even today it was definitely more than a 150 wicket. They kept performing and kept getting wickets whenever needed. Whenever they restricted the opposition to a low score, somebody stepped up with the bat, chipped in and that's how we've won most of our games," the CSK skipper said.
The 37-year-old ended by saying that Chennai need to go back to the drawing board and work on their mistakes this season.
"We have to go to our drawing board, and there is no real time for that now. We need to go into the World Cup and after that we need to see the gaps that we can fill. Nothing against the bowlers, it's the batsmen who need to step up," Dhoni signed off.
