Parthiv Patel had the best seat in the house, behind the stumps as Mumbai Indians clinched a one-run win over Rising Pune Supergiant in the VIVO IPL 2017 Final in Hyderabad. The Rohit Sharma-led side defended 129 runs in the grand finale to claim the trophy for the third time. With RPS needing 11 runs off the last over, the ball was handed to the veteran pacer Mitchell Johnson.

On most occasions, one would have fancied the batting team – in this case RPS – to score the runs. In this instance, the experienced campaigner Manoj Tiwary on strike at the start of the final over, and he had the company of a well-set Steve Smith – batting on 51 –at the non-striker’s end. Speaking about the last over, Parthiv said, “It was brilliant (cricket).

Mitchell Johnson has been bowling really well. With a couple of wickets (Tiwary and Smith were dismissed off successive balls), the game came (turned) in our favour.” The MI wicketkeeper added, “We were definitely under pressure after Tiwary had hit the first ball for four.

But that’s where I think experience comes in (to play).” While Parthiv mentioned that while 140-150 would have been a winning score, he explained that 130 was a par score and MI made up for the lack of few runs with their fielding.Parthiv, MI’s highest run-getter of the season,said that after winning the Ranji Trophy earlier in the year, to be able to also lift the IPL trophy was the icing on the cake.

In this chat for iplt20.com, he briefly reflects on the season and ‘keeping to Mitchell Johnson in the crucial last over in the grand finale. .

Source: http://www.iplt20.com/news/108662/mitchell-johnson-s-experience-came-in-to-play-parthiv-patel