4 lesser known facts involving Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians is one of the more famous and arguably the best team in the history of IPL. From the moment Sachin Tendulkar was announced as the ‘Icon Player’ of Mumbai Indians, they became one among the widely followed T20 teams. Besides that, their style of signing ‘Big Name’ players during every auction increases their fan base year by year. This is one of the many reasons why some have labelled them as the ‘Real Madrid’ of cricket.

Mumbai is the only team in the history of the tournament to win the IPL trophy thrice. In addition to this, they also won the now-defunct Champions League T20 twice. With a newly formed team, Mumbai would like to extend their legacy & dominance in the upcoming seasons. Mumbai being the defending champions will once again enter into this year's IPL edition as heavy favourites.

Even though they are being widely followed, there are few facts involving them which rarely got the attention of everyone. Let's look at four such lesser-known facts involving Mumbai Indians.

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#1 Foreign Players Rule

Foreign players have always played a vital role in Mumbai Indians T20 campaign

It's a well-known rule that each IPL team is allowed to field a maximum of four foreign players in their playing XI. But during the now-defunct Champions League T20 in 2011, Mumbai Indians were allowed to field five foreign players.

Since a majority of their Indian’s players were injured and ruled out of the tournament, MI successfully filed a request to permit them to field five foreign players in their starting XI. Without the exception, they would have been unable to construct a team of 11. So far this was the first and only scenario when an IPL team was allowed to field five foreign players. This exception was proved to be vital as MI emerged as the winners of that CLT20 edition.

#2 Dwayne Smith’s final day history

Dwayne Smith went unsold in this year's IPL auction

On the eve of IPL 2015 final between Mumbai Indians & Chennai Super Kings, Dwayne Smith, who was CSK's opening batsman at that time, achieved a rare unique feat.

He became the first player in the history of the competition to compete in two IPL finals which were contested by same two teams on both the occasions and he went on to represent each team in each of those finals.

To be clearer, In 2013 final, he was part of MI & played against CSK while in 2015 final he was part of the yellow army and played against MI.

#3 Sachin Tendulkar's final IPL six

Sachin announced his retirement from IPL at the end of season 6 final

The tradition of naming a stand in a stadium after a particular player is quite common. Since these days even stadiums are getting named after the players (Darren Sammy of West Indies is one good example). But only very few are blessed to play in that respective stadium after getting a stand against their name. It is no surprise that Sachin Tendulkar has got a stand in his name at the historic Wankhede stadium.

During the 62nd league match of IPL 2013 between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Sachin Tendulkar hit a huge six between mid-wicket & long on. He injured his hand in the process and was forced to retire hurt as a result of the injury. Incidentally, this match turned out to be his last IPL match as he was forced to sit out the rest of the tournament owing to this injury.

If you look at that final six, you could find the ball comfortably landing in the master’s very own ‘Sachin Tendulkar Stand’.

#4 Historic Rivalry

CSK will be aiming to start their IPL 2018 campaign on a winning note against MI

Only two teams in the history of IPL have competed against each other maximum number of times (3) in the finals' day. It's not bizarre that these two teams are the most consistent team in the history of the competition - Mumbai Indians & Chennai Super Kings.

Cricketing rivalry between these two teams is well-known and the intensity among the fans when these two teams square off against each other can’t be explained in simpler terms. Social media will be blazing whenever these two teams step on to the field. MI is currently the only team to have the highest head-to-head win percentage against the CSK. MI also holds the unique distinction of defeating CSK in the finals maximum number of times (2).

With the suspension of CSK for 2 years, their epic rivalry was heavily missed in the past 2 editions of IPL (2016 & 2017). It's an icing on the cake moment for the fans that CSK will return to IPL with their comeback match scheduled against their beloved rivals MI on Apr 7, 2018 in Wankhede, Mumbai.