One run: Mumbai defend 129 to win the closest final the IPL had ever seen

There are finals that are won and finals that are survived. On the night of 21 May 2017, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians did the second kind. They had 129 runs to protect — a total that looked, for most of the evening, hopelessly short — and they protected all but one of them. When the last ball was bowled, the margin was a single run, and it was Mumbai’s.

The lowest total ever defended in a final

Sent in to bat, Mumbai Indians never got going. The pitch gripped, the boundaries dried up, and a batting line-up stacked with names simply could not free its arms. That they reached 129 for 8 at all was down to Krunal Pandya, who walked in with the innings sputtering and made 47 from 38 balls — the one hand of the match played at something like a run a ball — with a late cameo of 13 from Mitchell Johnson dragging the total to a figure that at least gave the bowlers something to bowl at.

It did not look like enough. It should not have been enough. It became the lowest total ever successfully defended in an IPL final.

Dhoni, Smith and a chase that kept stalling

Rising Pune Supergiant, in only their second season, had every reason to fancy the chase. They had beaten Mumbai three times already that year. They had MS Dhoni in the middle order and, in Steve Smith, a captain in the form of his life who had carried them through the playoffs. What they did not have, on the night, was rhythm.

Mumbai’s bowling was relentless and clever. Jasprit Bumrah returned 2 for 26 from his four overs, mixing yorkers and slower balls at the death; Lasith Malinga squeezed the middle. Smith fought his way to 51 and Ajinkya Rahane made 44, but the required rate kept climbing because the singles kept refusing to become boundaries. Pune reached the final over — bowled by Mitchell Johnson — needing 11 to win.

Eleven off the last over

What followed was pure theatre:

• A four to begin the over gave Pune the initiative.
• Manoj Tiwary holed out reaching for the glamour six, and suddenly seven were needed from four.
• Next ball, Smith — the man who had held the chase together — drove Johnson straight to Ambati Rayudu at deep cover. The captain was gone.
• Off the final delivery, Dan Christian ran two, and Washington Sundar was run out going back for the third that would have tied the match.

128 for 6. Beaten by one.

Mumbai’s third, and a template for the tight ones

The win gave Mumbai Indians their third IPL title, moving them clear as the tournament’s most successful franchise to that point. More than the number, though, it was the manner that mattered. This was not a side that overpowered opponents; it was a side that refused to lose the close ones — disciplined at the death, calm when the maths said panic, trusting the right bowlers with the right overs.

It would become the Mumbai signature. Two years later they would win another final by the identical margin of a single run, this time over Chennai. But 2017 was where the template was set, on a night they had no business winning and won anyway.

For Krunal Pandya, an uncapped all-rounder before the tournament began, it was the innings that announced him — 47 hard-won runs on a night when nobody else could score, and the Player-of-the-Match medal to prove it. For Rising Pune, who would fold as a franchise after just two seasons, it was the cruellest kind of near-miss: unbeaten against Mumbai all year, and beaten by one run when it counted.

The result, margin and Player-of-the-Match for this final are drawn from IPLTracker’s 2017 season page, computed by the CricketLogic engine from ball-by-ball data.