Mumbai Indians go from bottom of the table to second title

Six weeks ago the idea would have drawn laughter. Mumbai Indians had lost four matches on the trot to open their season and won only once in their first six games; they sat at the foot of the table, their campaign apparently over before it had begun. On Sunday night at Eden Gardens they lifted the trophy. Mumbai beat Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs to win the 2015 Indian Premier League — their second title, and the most improbable of the two.

The turnaround

What happened between April’s despair and May’s coronation was, even by the standards of this franchise, extraordinary. From one win in six, Mumbai Indians reeled off victory after victory — a five-match winning run that dragged them off the bottom and into the top four, and eventually into the play-offs as the form side of the tournament. By the time they met Chennai in Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede, the momentum had entirely switched hands; MI won that game too, by 25 runs, and booked the final directly.

Chennai took the harder road through the eliminator and Qualifier 2, and arrived at Eden Gardens having already lost to Mumbai twice in the space of a fortnight.

The final: Rohit and Simmons set it up

MS Dhoni won the toss and put Mumbai in. It looked, briefly, like a good call — and then Lendl Simmons and Rohit Sharma took the game away.

Simmons, who had been drafted in mid-season, top-scored with a controlled 68 off 45. But the innings that lit the ground belonged to the captain. Rohit Sharma reached his fifty in just 24 balls, all cool wrists and clean timing, before falling for a 26-ball 50 — the kind of cameo that decides finals. Kieron Pollard (36 off 18) and an unbeaten Ambati Rayudu (36 not out) kept the accelerator down, and Mumbai closed on 202 for 5.

Two hundred at Eden, in a final, against this bowling — it was as good as decisive.

Chennai never threatened

Chennai Super Kings needed one of their famous chases and never found it. Dwayne Smith battled to 57, but he did it slowly, and around him the innings stalled. Suresh Raina (28) came and went; Dhoni, so often the man for exactly this situation, could manage only 18. Mitchell McClenaghan struck early and often to finish with 3 for 25, Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh took two apiece, and the required rate climbed out of reach long before the end. Chennai were held to 161 for 8 — beaten by 41 runs, and comprehensively.

Rohit was named Player of the Match. For a captain who once again saved his best for the biggest stage, and for a side that had been written off in April, it was a fitting way to end the night.

Innings	Score	Top scorer
Mumbai Indians	202/5	Simmons 68
Chennai Super Kings	161/8	Smith 57

The shadow over Chennai

There was an unspoken subtext to the evening. Chennai contested this final under the cloud of the 2013 betting and spot-fixing case, with the Supreme Court’s Justice Lodha panel still deliberating on what punishments should follow the earlier findings against a team official. No verdict has yet been handed down, and it would be wrong to prejudge one. But there was a sense around Eden Gardens that this proud, five-time finalist might be playing under a different kind of pressure than the scoreboard suggested — and that whatever the panel decides in the weeks ahead could reshape the tournament that Chennai have graced since 2008.

For now, though, the story is Mumbai’s. From last to first, from a season presumed dead to a trophy at the home of Indian cricket — it is the sort of comeback that becomes part of a franchise’s identity. Rohit Sharma has his second title as captain, and Mumbai Indians have made their claim to be the team no one should ever count out.

The result, margin and Player-of-the-Match for this final are drawn from IPLTracker’s 2015 season page, computed by the CricketLogic engine from ball-by-ball data.