C H A M PS AGA I N : M u m b a i Indians players celebrate with the trophy after beating Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs in the IPL 8 final at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday. PTI Mumbai Indians completedafairy-talerunbywinningtheir second IPL title at a packed Eden Gardens here on Sunday. Being the laggards of the league till the first half of the season, when they lost four matches in a row, to emerging the champions, Mumbai’s campaigncameafullcircleinahappy coincidence of events here. Mumbai, who defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 41 runs in the IPL 8 final, had prevailed over the same opponents in the final of the 2013 edition here.Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma led from the front with the bat (50 off 25 balls) and marshalled his resources intelligently to
choke the CSK top-order batsmen forruns after posting a massive 202. Rohit might as well have had a
quiet chuckle when M S Dhoni surprisingly asked him to bat first after winning the toss. Despite losing Parthiv Patel in the opening over, Mumbaineverallowedthebig-game pressure to get the better of them as Rohit and Lendl Simmons (68, 45b, 8x4, 3x6) added 119 in 68 balls forthe second wicket to lay the base for a big total. Kieron Pollard (36 off 18) and Ambati Rayudu (36 off 24)then looted
71 off 40 towards the end to complete a dominating batting show. CSK never measured up to the
task. Their start was not desirable (31/1 in power play) and they could not build any momentum in the middle, eventually slumping to 161 for eight at the end of their disappointing chase.
