Rohit, Boult star as Mumbai Indians successfully defend title

Mumbai Indians 157 for 5 (Rohit 68, Ishan 33*, Nortje 2-25) beat Delhi Capitals 156 for 7 (Iyer 65, Pant 56, Boult 3-30, Coulter-Nile 2-29) by five wickets

Dubai: Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League 2020 (IPL 2020) final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. on Tuesday

Set a target of 156, Mumbai achieved it in 18.4 overs with five wickets in hand.

This is Mumbai Indians fifth IPL title, the most by any side.

And also, for the first time, Mumbai Indians have successfully defended an IPL title. They came into the tournament as defending champions after having defeated Chennai Super Kings in 2019. They become second team after CSK to defend an IPL title

It was captain Rohit Sharma who took his side close to victory with a fine half-century.

Rohit scored 68 off 51 balls. Apart from him, Ishan Kishan scored unbeaten 33 runs.

Delhi Capitals never looked in control, except for a brief period when Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant were batting.

Earlier, put to bat first Delhi Capitals posted a decent total despite getting off to a shaky start.

Trent Boult dismissed Marcus Stoinis and Ajinkya Rahane in his first and second over and then spinner Jayant Yadav removed Shikhar Dhawan to make things ugly for Delhi.

It was then the 96-run partnership for the fourth wicket between captain Shreyas Iyer and wicket-keeper batsman Shikhar Dhawan that helped Delhi post 156 for seven in their allotted 20 overs.

While Iyer finished unbeaten on 65 off 50 balls, which included six fours and two sixes, Pant made 38-ball 56, hitting four fours and two sixes as well.

For Mumbai Indians, Boult scalped three wickets while Nathan Coulter-Nile picked two.

For the uninitiated, this was Delhi Capitals' first IPL final.