Mitchell Johnson”s honest admission about his IPL career will surprise you :- He might be in the twilight of his career, however that hasn’t stop him from being batsmen’s ‘Dennis The Menace’. On Sunday, Mitchell Johnson defended 11 in the last over to give Mumbai their third IPL title.
It was like a wild dream come true for the 35-year old Queensland Pacer as he never expected to be picked at the IPL auction, forget bowling the last over of the final and winning the match for his side.
“After KXIP dropped me last year, I never thought I would play IPL again. I was happy Mumbai picked me and looked what has just happened now!” Johnson said in post-match interview. It was only his little stint at BBL with Perth Scorchers that helped him get a bid at the auction. His spell from the hell at WACA in semi final against Melbourne Stars (4-2-3-3) dispelled doubts about his fitness and lack of match practice.
On the left is 2013, on the right is 2017. Separate years, same result for @MitchJohnson398 and the @mipaltan! #IPLFinal pic.twitter.com/wTJ23A2Vks
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) May 21, 2017
“I was quite surprised to get the last over as I thought those pressure situations are over but I enjoyed bowling the last over as I knew that to keep runs in control we need Smith’s wicket and we got him on the offside which got us the match. It was important to win a close game against these guys (RPS) after losing two close games against them.”
After being asked what total MI had in mind after winning the toss and batting first Johnson quoted, “This wasn’t the total we were expecting, we expected to get close to 170 but their bowlers bowled pretty well, taking a few early wickets but still we thought that we can defend 130 as we did against Kolkata in the last match as I think they are a better batting side. So it was all about performing in the pressure, and we always had that hope as the wicket was slower we could try some slower ones, yorkers and hitting the wicket hard to build pressure on them.”
In 5 matches for MI this season he picked up 7 wickets at an economy rate of 7 with 3/26 in the final. Who would’ve thought a guy who found it difficult to be picked at the auction would turn out to be hero on the night of final? Cricket is a funny game indeed!
– by Atharva Apte
