Rising Pune Supergiant and Mumbai Indians both finished in the first two spots of the table after the completion of the league matches. Thus the teams engaged in a qualifier on 16th May 2017 where Pune defeated Mumbai comprehensively. Mumbai took the revenge as they defeated Pune in the final and won the IPL.
In the first qualifier though, RPS defeated Mumbai Indians by 20 runs and entered the final of the IPL. Tiwary (58), Rahane (56) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (40 not out off 26) helped Pune post 162/4 in their first innings. Washington Sundar then tore through the Mumbai top-order as the hosts could only score 142/9 at the Wankhede Stadium.
Earlier in the night, Rohit Sharma won the toss and sent Pune to bat first. Mumbai had a near-perfect start, removing the opener Rahul Tripathi (0) and captain Steve Smith (1) in the first two overs and left RPS reeling at 9/2. Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary then stitched a partnership and both scored half-centuries.
After their separation, MS Dhoni walked in. He was especially lethal against death-over specialist Jasprit Bumrah in the final over. MSD smacked five sixes as the last two overs yielded 41 runs for RPS.
Opening batsman Parthiv Patel (52 off 40) held fort for Mumbai from the start. However, Lendl Simmons’s wicket opened the floodgates for Mumbai. Simmons was out in the most unfortunate way with Mumbai at 35/1 in 4.3 overs. After the wicket, Sundar started his impressive bowling spell.
Rohit Sharma (1) was adjudged lbw while Ambati Rayudu (0) pulled straight into the hands of Steven Smith at short midwicket. Next wicket to fall was Kieran Pollard (7) and Pune had Mumbai on the mat, with the scoreboard reading 51/4 in eight overs.
Lockie Ferguson then took out Hardik Pandya with Mumbai at 75/5 in 11.1 overs. With Mumbai still behind the target by 88 runs, it was a huge task for the hosts. Under the pressure of mounting required run-rate, Hardik Pandya (15) and Parthiv fell in the 15th over bowled by Thakur. With Mumbai needing 60 runs off five overs, the task proved too much for the lower-order batsmen and RPS rejoiced a clinical win.
