The Mumbai Indians won their fifth IPL crown on Tuesday when they comfortably beat the Delhi Capitals by five wickets in the final.
With both sides featuring South Africans in action, the question was always if Kagiso Rabada could spearhead the Capitals to their maiden title, while Mumbai went out to defend their trophy from last year.
But the Capitals got off to the worst possible start when Marcus Stoinis was dismissed by Trent Boult with the very first delivery of the match.
READ: Rabada key to Delhi Capitals’ success
The situation went from bad to worse when Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan followed soon after as the Capitals slumped to 22-3.
Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant brought their team back into the contest, however, with a handy 96-run partnership before Pant departed for 56.
Iyer helped carry the Capitals to 156-7 in the 20 overs with an unbeaten knock of 65.
Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma made a flying start to the run chase and got Mumbai on the front foot from the outset.
The Proteas skipper made 20 off 12 but Sharma kicked on with a brilliant half-century of his own, before he fell victim to Anrich Nortje for 68 from 51 deliveries.
It was enough to put Mumbai in front of the required run rate as Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya guided Mumbai to a brilliant victory.
Rabada, however, finished the campaign as the Purple Hat winner with 30 wickets in total across the competition.
