How Mumbai Indians' IPL 2025 Eliminator win underlined their biggest strength

“It is not how you start that is important, but how you finish!” – a quote that has often done the rounds. Whether it be on LinkedIn profiles, motivational seminars, or every run-of-the-mill team meeting around a long and arduous task. But not many instances make this quote, or this thought process, feel as much of a gospel truth than a rigorous multi-team sports tournament like the IPL. And no team embraces that mindset as much as the Mumbai Indians.

This IPL season has been no different. The opening five matches yielded just two points, but the ten games since have seen eight MI wins, with their latest victory taking them closer to a slice of history . And while MI doing MI things may seem like a recurring narrative, it is certainly worth gushing about all over again, just because, well, they seem to do it every darn time.

Take the Eliminator against the Gujarat Titans, for example. MI entered that contest with their second-highest run-scorer of the season back in South Africa, preparing for a format and a challenge vastly different, and with Rohit Sharma, frequently their man for the big occasion, tallying just 36 runs in his last three innings.

MI as a whole is more than sum of its parts

That is the thing about champion teams and champion players, though. They do score at other times, but they almost always score when their side needs it the most. And like that evening in Dubai in March, when India craved a captain’s innings against the Kiwis, Rohit, despite not being the skipper in New Chandigarh, acted like the leader he has been for the Mumbai Indians.

When Jonny Bairstow was calling the shots at the other end, Rohit was willing to bide his time. On another evening, he might well have been walking back had the Titans held on to their chances , but the composure to not try and match Bairstow stroke for stroke, and then the conviction to take on the mantle once Bairstow had perished and Suryakumar Yadav needed time to get settled, helped MI pile on the pressure.

And that theme, of MI keeping their wits, picking and choosing their spots and winning all the key moments, continued throughout the evening. Hardik Pandya played one such blinder right at the death, ensuring that a total of 200-210, which would have been par in Shubman Gill’s words, morphed into a 229-run chase. All with the added pressure of knowing this was a point of no return.

Also Read | Rohit Sharma achieves double milestone and creates history with Bairstow in Eliminator

In between, Suryakumar and Tilak Varma played their roles too. Neither of them indulged in prolonged pyrotechnics, but their firecracker knocks kept up the tempo and gave off the vibe that MI were out to dominate proceedings.

Then, Trent Boult did what he does best with the new ball. He went out and sent the best GT batter packing with a left-handed wave of his wand. GT, led by Sai Sudharsan, fought back and fought back to such an extent that their fans began dreaming and drooling over what could have become a record-breaking evening. With 81 needed off 42 and with two set batters at the crease, it may have even felt like GT’s game to lose.

And that is exactly when MI typed JASPRITBUMRAH into their system, and unfurled the cheat code that has thwarted oppositions almost every day. Bumrah ripped through Washington Sundar’s attempted flick and Mumbai, just like that, had won another massive moment in the encounter.

GT being GT, counter-punched after that too, reducing the equation to 68 off 30. MI being MI, though, knew what they needed to do, and they did that with aplomb. Gleeson got rid of Sudharsan. Ashwani Kumar kept GT on a tight leash in the 17th. Bumrah bowled an amazing 18th over, and Boult, who had rocked GT early, returned to close the game out as a contest with an over left. All of this while GT felt the game was within grasp, and they had a real shot at pulling off a heist.

And that, more than anything else, encapsulates why Mumbai have won the IPL five times, and why they are going for a sixth title this year. It is not about the superstars at their disposal. That helps. It certainly does. Make no mistake about it.

In knockouts, there’s no better team than MI

But when the playoffs dawn, or when the business end of the tournament approaches, MI, irrespective of how poor they have been prior to it, or how listless they have seemed before that phase, somehow rise from the ashes like a phoenix. Often smiling and smirking at those who questioned them, and metaphorically highlighting that this is their habitat, and where they feel most comfortable.

Which…is probably not a good sign for the rest of the pack. Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, from the start of the league stage to its finish, have put together more coherent campaigns than MI. But they have made a combined total of five IPL finals in eighteen years. MI have that many titles. And they have played in one more final.

That is the confidence MI will carry into Sunday. They may have been thumped by the Kings a few days ago, but back then, the Kings had no jeopardy to worry about. No real feeling of their world falling apart if things went wrong. No real doubt over if they can put behind previously nightmarish experiences.

Now, there will be jeopardy. Oh, there will be lots of it. And there will be a Mumbai Indians-named foe in front of them, with that notorious habit of starting off sluggishly and then bossing games where the differential between risk and reward is at its crest.

This, of course, does not mean that MI will ransack the remainder of the tournament and canter to another triumph. But history does suggest that MI prance and prowl in this neck of the woods better than most teams to have participated in this competition.

And Friday against the Titans was probably just another very vivid illustration.