Stephen Fleming MS Dhoni RPS
Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni have lost more IPL finals than they would like to rememberIANS

When Steve Smith hit Jasprit Bumrah for a six, which brought the equation down to a manageable level in the penultimate over of the IPL 2017 final, you could see quite a bit of emotion pouring out of MS Dhoni – a big smile and a bit of a clap on his thigh (hey, that's a lot in Dhoni land, a lot).

No player, after all, has been in more IPL finals than Dhoni and while the great man has lifted the golden cup on two occasions in the colours of the Chennai Super Kings, the former India captain has suffered more heartbreak than happiness when it has come to the summit clash of the world's most popular T20 tournament.

And as that smile turned into disbelief as Smith got out and his Rising Pune Supergiant team fell short by one run against the Mumbai Indians you couldn't help but feel sorry for Dhoni and his coach Stephen Fleming.

Seven times now these two have made it to the IPL final and Dhoni and Fleming, in a suit in this insane Hyderabad heat after losing a bet with his players, have lost five of those, with the latest one probably the hardest to swallow.

RPS did everything right in the first innings, tying down a dangerous MI batting lineup in knots and setting the game up for the batsmen.

And while it is advisable to take most games deep in a chase, in order to give yourself the best possible chance, the Rising Pune Supergiant batsmen made a mistake in taking this one to the final over.

The game should have been virtually finished off during that Smith and Ajinkya Rahane partnership. Instead of pressing their foot on the accelerator, both batsmen, particularly Smith, took the careful route, and with it they allowed MI to build pressure and more pressure.

And when you have bowlers like Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Johnson in your lineup, eventually that pressure was going to tell, as it did in a dramatic finale.

MS Dhoni, RPS, Mumbai Indians, IPL 2017, final
MS Dhoni could not pick up his third IPL titleIANS

Dhoni, of course, has the opportunity to finish off the game himself, but unfortunately got out to the brilliant Bumrah in a wonderful 17th over. Had Dhoni not edged that ball through to the wicketkeeper, no doubt, RPS would have gone on to clinch their first IPL title.

But, again, the script was for Dhoni to suffer more heartbreak in an IPL final.

In four previous final losses in CSK colours, two of those had come against the Mumbai Indians, with MI again tormenting Dhoni and Fleming in an IPL final by pulling off the closest possible win.

Who knows, had Ben Stokes been there, the left-hander would probably have smashed a couple of sixes, eased the pressure and RPS would have probably coasted home to the title.

But then, the Mumbai Indians might have gotten a bigger score had Jos Buttler taken guard in the middle at the top of the order instead of Lendl Simmons.

There are always a lot of ifs and if onlys at the end of a nerve-wracking final, but what doesn't change is the fact that five times now Dhoni and Fleming have had to sit in the dugout, contemplating how another title had gotten away from them.

And no doubt, the latest loss would have cut the deepest.