CLT20 Finals : Mumbai Wins - Post Match Analysis

Chennai, Oct 10: Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 31 runs to clinch Champions Trophy T20 on Sunday, Oct 9 at Chennai.
Today, it was another team show by Mumbai as the spinners delivered on a wicket which was assisting the. 140 was defended admirably and they are now the CLT20 champions.
In the semi-final, a great cameo towards the end by Suryakumar and Sathish allowed Mumbai to reach 160. It was the turn of Missile Malinga to wreck Somerset as he picked up 4/20 to seal a spot for Mumbai in the final.
The third match was washed out. However, Kanwar and Pollard lit up their innings with some stunning hits. In their match against NSW, the batting failed and they were handed a heavy defeat.
The second match was a low-scoring humdinger against T&T. After bowling out T&T for 98, Mumbai's batsmen struggled to get going and they gifted their wickets away. At one point, it looked like Trinidad and Tobago would pull off a stunning win but a miscalculation from Darren Ganga allowed Yuzvendar Chahal to sneak in two runs and give victory to Mumbai.
It all started with the match against Chennai Super Kings. On their fortress, Malinga and Harbhajan shared a brilliant partnership to ensure that Mumbai snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. It was a stunning win and that gave Mumbai the confidence as they marched on in this tournament.
No Rohit Sharma, No Sachin Tendulkar, No Munaf Patel at the start of the tournament. To confound their problems, Davy Jacobs also left home with an injured thigh. However, Mumbai played like a complete team and they have reaped rich rewards in the tournament.
Franklin: RCB got some crucial wickets at the back end and we knew that we had a fight. This is a great feeling. It has been well documented that we did not have key players but we played well.
Pollard: It was a total team effort. The youngsters put their hands up and all contributed. We had a motivational speech by Michael Horn and Pollock also focused on the importance of keeping it simple. Malinga is crucial and Franklin was also great. We believed in ourselves as we started to field. We did not have key players but that got the team closer.
In three years of Tendulkar's captaincy, Mumbai Indians have never managed to win a single trophy. In Harbhajan's first stint as captain, he has managed to get some silverware to the team. What an effort.
Smiles all around in the Mumbai camp. What an effort from them in this championship. At one point, they played five foreigners at the start of the tournament because they did not have local players in the squad. Suryakumar Yadav was injured and that was the reason for playing five foreigners.

Presentation Ceremony:
Harbhajan: I want to thank my team-mates. We were right in the game when we went to bowl. Our body language was good. It was a matter of getting Gayle, Dilshan and Kohli. Once we got them off, we were in the game and they were fantastic. When we went to the dressing room, we had the belief that we could defend this total. We gave our best shot and it worked. Lasith is a great player for Mumbai and he is a phenomenal player. It is great to have a player who can win matches out of nowhere. Franklin, Abu Nechim were great. We were not the favorites but to win in this competition in this manner is great.

Without Sachin and Rohit, if the team could achieve this, when they come back, Mumbai will go to greater heights.
Vettori: We fought back well after Franklin got them to a good start. 140 was gettable but everything went pear-shaped. The pitch would have been different from the one in Bangalore. Harbhajan really kept things tight in the middle overs. Mumbai played exceptionally well. After being in the finals of the IPL, we wanted to go one step ahead. However, we will try to do that in the IPL next year. We have some good players like Gayle, Dilshan but we could not go the distance.
David Warner gets the Golden Bat for scoring the maximum number of runs in this tournament.
Malinga: We were not in a good situation at the start of the tournament but we have ended on a high. I am playing only as a bowler in the team but I wanted to show that I can bat as well. We always tried to get somewhere between 140-145 and we wanted to pick some quick wickets. It was a good feeling to get rid of Dilshan. He is a great batsman. I enjoy playing for the Mumbai Indians.
Lasith Malinga is the MoS for his all-round brilliance. He took 10 wickets and for scoring 68 runs lower down the order. He also gets the Golden Wicket award.

Harbhajan Singh is the MoM for his match haul of 3/20 in four overs.
Rayudu: We have created history and it is an unbelievable achievement from our side since the last five years.
What can one say about Bangalore? Three finals and three losses. With the likes of Gayle and Kohli, one wonders why Bangalore have not won many tournaments. The over-reliance on the top order has resulted in Bangalore crumbling at the crucial stage. With Gayle and Dilshan departing cheaply, the rest of the batting order was exposed and they were completely taken apart by the Mumbai spinners. One can say for the moment that RCB are the new South Africa as far as choking is concerned