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Two doors remain until we walk into the exuberant festival of cricket known as the Indian Premier League (IPL). TWO DAYS. 48 HOURS. 2880 MINUTES. 172800 SECONDS. That’s where the countdown has reached, Paltan! Are you excited enough to see your fa-MI-ly, your Wankhede and time of the year back?

With two days to go until we begin our 2023 adventure against Royal Challengers Bangalore, we reflect on the two IPL finals where we emerged victorious by the finest of margins - 1 run.

2017: Boy, this was some turnaround. Batting first, MI rode on Krunal Pandya’s spirited knock (47 in 38 balls) to revive themselves from 79/7 to 129/8. From then on, the fire to fight back slowly started rising. And then with the ball, MI were slightly feeling the pressure as Pune had Steve Smith and MS Dhoni to round up the run chase.

The equation: 33 runs required in four overs. What could MI do? Could they possibly turn it around? The trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson just weren’t letting it go. A 23-year-old Bumrah showing maturity to dismiss Dhoni and Malinga conceding only 7 runs in the 18th over set the tone for Mitch to defend 11 in the final over.

Back-to-back wickets and a boundary on the first three balls, the match turned again, eh? Dan Christian dropped on 19.5. Four needed on the final ball. Three for a super over. Mumbai HAD to keep it tight. What happened? A run-out. Pune fell short by one run as Mitchell Johnson and the whole MI Patlan roared in unisoin: हमने दुनिया हिला दिया!

2019

Rohit Sharma vs MS Dhoni. Volume 2019. Both three-time winners. And a new record was up for grabs: A player to win four IPL trophies. There was no one-sided domination. The match could have been anyone’s game beginning with Kieron Pollard fending off CSK’s attacks at regular intervals with his 25-ball 41. Chennai were very adamant in the death overs, showing a stiff self to leak just 13 runs in the final two overs, leaving us with a modest 150 to defend.

Faf du Plessis gave an early push to the 150-run chase with his 26 runs in 13 balls, but after his departure, it was just a steady slip down the staircase. Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu and MS Dhoni were all dismissed for single-digit scores.n Shane Watson was the lone ranger for the ‘Men in Yellow’ as he brought the equation to nine runs needed in six balls.

With great power comes great responsibility, and the seasoned Lasith Malinga took it upon himself to bowl the final over of his IPL career. 1.1.2. The first three balls read as anxiousness filled the stands of the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. But on the fourth ball, a Shane Watson run out, saw the stadium turn blue. Defending two runs off the final ball, Slinga Malinga bowled a smooth slow yorker. Shardul Thakur was trapped plumb. LBW. We had our #4.