17 matches, 12 wins, 1 IPL title – those numbers make for good reading, don’t they? It tells you everything – just how successful the season! Of course, every season begins with a lot of homework – right from the auction, where we purchased terrific players who brought with them experience along with those of tremendous calibre which boosted our bench strength.

Our first game of the season was a Maharashtra Derby – but little did we know that it would be the first of many this campaign. We began our term with a loss to Rising Pune Supergiant but would end it with a win against them. Rustiness was evident against our neighbours in the opening game with our fielding suspect on ocassion. The total on board wasn’t quite up to scratch as it was chased down by a Steven Smith inspired Rising Pune Supergiant. And although we did take the game down to the last over, it wasn’t quite enough.

The hallmark of champion sides is how you come back after an off day in this office. On our first game of the season on home soil, we kick-stated a string of wins that would play a big part in our success story. Kolkata Knight Riders we duly put to the sword on a magical night at the Wankhede. KKR posted a strong total with the bat, as Manish Pandey’s unbeaten 81 took the opponents to 178/7 at innings break. We had a tough task ahead but our batsmen were up for it. We started on the right note as Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler laid the foundation. Nitish Rana, who impressed with the bat in our loss against Pune, came to the party yet again. This time, he smashed a quickfire 50 and was dealing in fours and sixes. Cameos from the Pandya brothers and Kieron Pollard were then enough to chase down the target. Our batsmen then decided to put their foot on the accelerator and take the game away from KKR. The record against KKR remained intact as we bagged our first win of the season.

Our next match of the season was against the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was a weekday but that didn’t stop the fans from flooding into the stadium. We restricted Hyderabad to below 160, thanks to inspirational bowling from Jasprit Bumrah – who finished with 3/24 in his 4-over spell. Harbhajan Singh kept things tight early, and later the SRH batsmen crumbled to set-up a fairly gettable total for us. We started off the chase in style as our openers were dealing in boundaries, with Parthiv Patel the chief enforcer. Nitish Rana arrived on the scene again as our southpaw impressed everyone with his excellent 45. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was terrific with the ball and took a 3-fer, but Krunal Pandya’s 20-ball 37 towards the end got us over the finishing line. Jasprit Bumrah was awarded the Man of the Match award for his terrific spell with the ball.

We then travelled south to Bengaluru to play against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. We managed to puy a lid on Chris Gayle’s innings but their skipper Virat Kohli smashed a 47-ball 62. Mitchell McClenaghan was sensational with the ball as our fiery pacer grabbed 2/20 in his 4 overs. Thus, Bangalore failed to accelerate towards the end and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. It was another solid outing for Krunal Pandya, as he managed to dismiss AB de Villiers for the third time in as many innings. Chasing 143, we got off to a sluggish start. Samuel Badree claimed a hat-trick and we were down to 7/4 in just the third over. The move to send Mitchell McClenaghan up the order didn’t work as a pinch-hitter didn’t work and soon we were 33/5. But our never-say-die attitude prevailed yet again as Kieron Pollard and Krunal Pandya shared a game-changing partnership. Senior KP grabbed the spotlight as took down the RCB bowlers. The game turned in our favour in no time and we scripted a memorable comeback. Pollard finished with 70 off just 47 balls and Krunal Pandya stayed unbeaten on 37. Mumbai retuned home with a morale boosting win.

Our next game was a special one. Like every year, this match was dedicated to the Education for All initiative. 18,000 kids came to the Wankhede to support our boys against Gujarat Lions. We won the toss yet again and claimed the early wicket of Dwayne Smith. McCullum and Raina shared a fifty-plus stand and some late hitting towards by Dinesh Karthik helped them cross the 170-run mark. Mitchell McClenaghan was the pick of the bowlers for us yet again as he finished with 2/24 off his 4 overs. We had to chase down 177 to maintain our winning run and it went right down to the wire. Nitish Rana was the top-scorer yet again as he hit another fifty and skipper Rohit Sharma came to the party as well with a composed knock of an unbeaten 40 off 29 balls which took us over the line. Gujarat fought hard but our boys didn’t want to disappoint the 18,000 kids in the stadium. It was our fourth straight win and we were riding high on confidence.

We travelled to Indore for our next game which was against Kings XI Punjab. A high-scoring venue, resulted in a high-scoring game. Kings XI Punjab posted 198/4 in their 20 overs, thanks to a century from Hashim Amla. We had a mountain to climb but our players came out all guns blazing. They had the belief in them and scripted another special victory. Parthiv Patel and Jos Buttler got us off to a flyer as the latter went on to score 77 off just 37 balls, while Nitish Rana’s quickfire fifty sealed the game for us within 16 overs. What was interesting about Rana’s knock was he didn’t hit a single four but smashed 7 sixes. It was our record IPL chase and to do so in just 15.3 overs was phenomenal. It was this win that sent a strong message to our opponents. We broke several batting records during this game as every KXIP bowler was taken to the cleaners. Not one returned with an economy rate under 10. We were on a roll and bagged our fifth consecutive win.

Next up was the game against the Delhi Daredevils who were struggling a bit in this tourney. Delhi won the toss and inserted us to bat. Our batsmen struggled a bit and couldn’t click as a unit. Mishra and Cummins bagged two wickets apiece and restricted us on 142. Chasing 140-odd at the Wankhede is straightforward and our bowlers knew they had to do something extraordinary to defend this total. They did so and thrilled our fans with a super human effort. Delhi were reeling at one stage with 24/6 on the board. McClenaghan ran through their top order and destroyed all their chances of chasing down the total. The Kiwi returned with 3 wickets while Bumrah grabbed two. It was our sixth straight victory, matching our joint-best streak in IPL.

7 games in, we had 6 wins. After the loss against Pune in the first game we came back strongly to be on the top of the table. The return fixture against Pune was here. Our neighbours posted 160 on the board – Karn Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah picked up a couple of wickets each while Harbhajan Singh got the big wicket of Steven Smith, which was his 200th wicket in the T20 format. During our chase, we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Rohit Sharma battled throughout but Pune bowled extremely well in the death overs. Ben Stokes in particular, was impressive. Jaydev Unadkat’s last over heroics took the limelight as we suffered our second loss of the season and that too against the same opposition.

We travelled to Rajkot for our next game where Gujarat Lions won the toss and opted to bat. Krunal Pandya kept things tight with the ball and was the pick of the bowlers. He returned with 3/14 in 4 overs and restricted the visitors on 153/9. While chasing, Parthiv Patel used all his experience at this venue and was the top-scorer of the innings for us. His 70 wasn’t enough to get us over the line, though. The match went down the wire as Gujarat came back hard towards the end. Their fielding was the highlight and the match was tied. It meant it was our first ever Super Over in the history of the IPL. Gujarat Lions chose James Faulkner to bowl their over and we went in with Jos Buttler and Kieron Pollard – two of our dangerous big hitters. Unfortunately, we couldn’t bat all 6 balls and managed just 11 runs. Jasprit Bumrah was then given the responsibility of defending the total and he was up against Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum. Bumrah started off with extras, no ball and wide but came back brilliantly. His near-perfect yorkers, full and wide deliveries outside off fooled the two batsmen completely and we emerged victorious. It was marvellous execution under tremendous pressure. Bumrah showed nerves of steels.

We returned home and were up against the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Maharashtra Day! RCB opted to bat first in the 4 PM game under the scorching sun. They posted a challenging total on the board but didn’t get a move on in their innings as we kept things a bit tight. McClenaghan got three wickets while Kruna picked two. The latter completed 4-0 against AB de Villiers! Our middle order came to the rescue as we managed to chase down the target and won the game with five wickets to spare. Skipper Rohit Sharma smashed an unbeaten fifty to see us home. We were back to our winning ways and were the team to beat this season.

Delhi Daredevils, next up in the capital city. We batted first and our batsmen started hitting the ball right from the word go. Lendl Simmons was brought in, replacing Jos Buttler and he didn’t show any signs of rustiness. The right-handed batsman smashed 66 off just 43 balls while Kieron Pollard’s move to come in at no. 3 was the highlight. KP hammered an unbeaten 63 off just 35 balls while Hardik Pandya’s finishing role with the bat came in handy as well. We posted a mammoth total of 212 on the board. Delhi, in reply, capitulated and were bundled out for just 66 runs on the board. None of their batsmen got going and fell like 9 pins. It was a collective bowling effort by us – Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma got three wickets each, while Malinga finished with 2/5. We managed to win by a huge margin of 146 runs – the highest in IPL history. It meant we were not just winning, but winning in style, breaking record after record.

We travelled to Hyderabad for our next game which was against the defending champions. Unfortunately, apart from our skipper, our batters couldn’t click as a unit. Hyderbad, in reply, chased down the target without major hiccups and players returned home with a defeat. It was another chance for us to improve on the areas we struggled.

Last home game of the season, against Kings XI Punjab. Our opponents needed a win to stay alive in this competition. They batted extremely well on a wicket that suited the batsmen. Saha’s unbeaten 93 and Maxwell’s 21-ball 47 helped them post 230 with the bat. Our players knew it won’t be that easy to chase down this total but they gave their all. Simmons fired yet again and gave us a solid start. All the batsmen chipped in and tried their best throughout the innings. We almost chased down the total, reaching 223 in the second innings falling short by 7 runs in the end. It was tough to digest the loss as we came so close. That would also turn out to be our highest score in IPL history.

Our last league game of the tournament was against the Kolkata Knight Riders. We decided to test our bench strength and made many changes to our line-up. Saurabh Tiwary returned in Mumbai Indians colours while Ambati Rayudu lived up to his ‘Mr. Dependable’ tag. We posted 170+ with the bat which was eventually enough to defend. Our bowlers were excellent and stopped Kolkata Knight Riders’ 12-match winning streak. We finished the league stage on the top of the table, thanks to our consistency over these games.

In Qualifier 1, we met Rising Pune Supergiant yet again at the Wankhede Stadium. Rahane, Tiwary and Dhoni helped them cross the 160-run mark. In the chase, our batsmen started losing wickets at regular intervals. Teenager Washington Sundar was accurate in his spell and got three wickets along with Shardul Thakur. Parthiv Patel’s fifty went in vain as we lost the game.

Qualifier 2 now, against Kolkata Knight Riders. Heading into this match we had a strong record against KKR – 15 wins in 20 games. KKR were coming off a win against Sunrisers Hyderabad, knocking out the defending champions in the Eliminator. The Lynn-Narine opening pair would fall short against us. In fact, none of their batsmen would get going. Karn Sharma bowled brilliantly and grabbed a 4-fer – the first one for us this season. Jasprit Bumrah’s wonderful figures of 3-1-7-3 meant we bowled out KKR for just 107. Our batsmen chased down the target inside 15 overs where Krunal Pandya smashed an unbeaten 45 and we booked out seat in the IPL final.

After such a successful season, we had high expectations. We were up against rivals Rising Pune Supergiant for the fourth time this season. Our three previous games against them resulted in defeats and we had a point to prove. In matches like these, it was important to bat first to avoid the extra pressure of chasing. We did so but unfortunately couldn’t post a challenging total on the board. Pune might have been the happier side at the innings break but we didn’t give up. Pune were favourites to chase down the target but Rohit Sharma and his troops had something else in mind. On a wicket which wasn’t easy to bat on, Rahane and Smith controlled the innings. Steven Smith was batting cautiously and even Dhoni didn’t get a move on. Pune were in front till approximately the 15th over and then we scripted an incredible fightback.

Our bowlers began piling on the pressure. The momentum changed in no time and we were down to the final over. Steven Smith, their skipper was still at the crease. They needed 11 runs to win off the last over. Mitchell Johnson was given the task to defend those runs. The first ball of the over was a boundary and Pune were favourites yet again. The Australian used all his experience and took a wicket off the second ball. Smith then came on strike and Pune needed 7 off 4. The Pune skipper slapped one through the off side but the ball went straight into the hands of the fielder. Johnson was celebrating and Smith couldn’t believe it. It came down to the final ball, with Pune needing four runs off the last delivery. Christian hit it through the leg side but couldn’t cross the finish line in the end. The players erupted in joy and we had won our third title.

Emotions ran high – it was truly a special achievement, as we became the first team to win three IPL trophies. The support staff along with the players was the driving force behind our successful run in the 10th edition of the prestigious Indian Premier League. Another long-standing force has been our fans – the Paltan. They believed in us during our highs and lows and never gave up on the team. The Wankhede was made a fortress yet again with their vociferous cheers, chants and support. Rohit Sharma had dedicated the victory to the fans after we won the final and we are what we are, largely because of them. We saw a dream together and lived it.