Down to the wire!

In what was undoubtedly one of the best matches of the Twenty20 tournament, the Kings XI Punjab defeated the Mumbai Indians by 1 run to register its eighth win of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL).

With this win, the Mohali-based team denied Mumbai a chance to get to their seventh consecutive victory which means Sachin Tendulkar’s team will have to fight harder to make that fourth semi-final spot. In the last encounter between the two teams at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium at Mohali, the home side defeated the Mumbai Indians by 66 runs.

In stark contrast to that, today’s match at the Wankhede Stadium at Mumbai between the two sides was decided off the very last ball.

Chasing a mammoth 190 to win in their 20 overs, the Mumbai boys went out to bat with the whole stadium supporting them after their fine turnaround in the series, which saw them notch 6 straight wins after a poor start to the tournament.

With Sanath Jayasuriya in fine form, everyone knew that anything was possible provided the team gets off to a good start. And right from the word ‘go’ both openers, Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar seemed on the button. Jayasuriya raced to 20 off 12 deliveries before he lost his wicket with the team’s score on 36 in the third over.

After recovering from a groin injury, Tendulkar has not been able to crack big scores and a big innings from the local hero could not have come at a better time.

Dwayne Smith, who is the recent addition to the Mumbai team as an all-rounder for Dwayne Bravo, scored a brisk 20 from 16 balls. Abhishek Nayar, another promising lad, scored a quick-fire 27 from 18 balls. Mumbai always made the target of 190 look chase-able. But all went wrong at the end of the 17th over when Tendulkar was dismissed 65 from 46 deliveries. India then needed 31 runs in 18 balls.

Shaun Pollock and Robin Uthappa, both batsmen who have taken Mumbai home single-handedly in the past, got out without troubling the scorers too much.

The captain of the Mohali franchise, Yuvraj Singh bought himself into the attack and a bowled a fine 2 overs where he picked up 2 wickets for 12 runs.

The Mumbai middle and lower order who haven’t had the opportunity to bat a lot in the tournament came and went and the team which seemed to chase 190 so effortlessly at one point, was now stuttering.

Siddharth Chitnis made up for his expensive bowling spell during the first half of the game by hitting an ‘under pressure’ four and six to inch Mumbai closer to that target. With 3 runs required from the same number of balls, Ashish Nehra tried to sneak a third run but was run out in the bargain.

The match then came down to the wire; Vikrant Yeligati faced the last ball of the Mumbai innings with a single wicket left and 2 runs required for victory. A draw would take the match to a ‘bowl-out’, something we haven’t seen in the IPL so far.

The following unfolded in a matter of seconds - Yeligati manages to get bat on ball in the direction of a fielder and scampers for a single. What he doesn’t realize though was that he had just aimed the ball to the captain of the Mohali side who happens to be one of the best fielders in the team. A splendid diving run-out by Yuvraj Singh resulted in Mumbai losing what was the closest contest of the IPL, by 1 run.

Earlier in the day, the Kings XI Punjab amassed a hugely competitive total of 189/4.

Shaun Marsh and Luke Pomersbach put on a partnership of 133 runs for the second wicket which was hugely responsible for that score. All other batsmen had registered single digit runs.

Chitnis picked up 2 wickets for 40 runs in his four overs for the home side. All the Mumbai bowlers took a beating from the willows of the Australians, Pomersbach (79 off 50) and Marsh (81 off 56).

The latter was awarded the Player of the Match for his brilliant stroke play. This is the Marsh’s third Player of the Match award at the IPL.

The next match of the IPL will be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium at Delhi between the Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders.