Played three, lost three: It’ll be a battle of minds for Mumbai as they take on RPS in the IPL final

Played thrice. Lost thrice.

For a team that has been quite the force to reckon with throughout this IPL season, Mumbai Indians have not found a way past the Rising Pune Supergiant even once. With two of the four defeats Mumbai suffered in the group stage coming at the fag end when the qualification was already sealed, Steve Smith’s side is the only one to have defeated Rohit Sharma when it mattered.

And on Sunday, it’s a game that matters the most. When the coin is tossed at 7.30 pm in Hyderabad, Rohit will know he is facing his most potent opponent thus far this year.

In a way, it sets up the final beautifully. On one side you have a team that undoubtedly has the best squad and unlike years past, have been consistently good throughout instead of starting slow and making a mad dash to the final. This is Mumbai’s 4th final and there is no doubt they go into the final with the big-match experience.

On the other side, you have the only team who have beaten them more than once this year. RPS’ journey to the final has been Mumbai-esque. Halfway through the tournament, the team was looking like anything but playoff material. But the shrewd captain that he is, Smith got the team balance right, and with various players making their presence felt at different times, stormed into the final.

In many ways, the IPL final sees an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

So what gives?

A look at Mumbai’s three defeats to Pune tells you there is not much separating the two sides. The first time they met was the teams’ respective opening match of the campaign. On a belter of a wicket in Pune, Mumbai posted a formidable 182, mainly thanks to Ashok Dinda’s generosity with the ball in his hand. In reply, first Ajinkya Rahane and then Steve Smith led beautifully paced the chase despite the high asking rate. It was a last over win.

The second meeting was even tighter. With Pune batting first this time, Rohit was leading Mumbai’s chase of 158 with a captain’s knock before that Ben Stokes produced a gem of a spell at the death and perhaps single-handedly won the match for Pune.

And then the playoffs. The scorecard will tell you it was a fairly convincing win for Pune. A 20-run margin usually is. But take Dhoni’s 26-ball 40 blitzkrieg out of Pune’s innings and a the target would have been a much more chaseable 140-odd.

Over the three matches, the trend is that of Pune batsmen outshining the Mumbai batsmen. And that’s where Mumbai will look to improve. As they showed against KKR in Bengaluru, the team is not afraid to experiment in the later stage of the tournament. Giving Jasprit Bumrah the new ball for the first time this year proved to be a master-stroke as he removed the dangerous Chris Lynn. The field placements – like long on for Lynn in the powerplay – also showed Mumbai’s think-tank is working overtime and it came off.

Karn Sharma could prove to be a crucial factor too. The leg-spinner was not part of the two defeats in the group stage and produced a man-of-the-match display against KKR in the qualifier. With the match happening in Hyderabad, where spinners have done well all year, Karn Sharma’s form is something Rohit would count on against the right-heavy Pune batting line up.

But perhaps the biggest challenge for the Mumbai Indians would be overcoming the mental aspect of the three defeats from earlier in the season. In a format decided by small margins, with very little to choose between the two sides in terms of quality, how much Mumbai Indians let the 3-0 scoreline weigh on them could well be the factor that decides the IPL 2017 champions.