Rohit Sharma hit a six off the final delivery of the innings to leave Deccan Chargers stunned and Mumbai Indians victorious on the night by 5 wickets. Rohit scored 73 runs from 50 balls.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. And for Mumbai Indians that man was Rohit Sharma. Sharma hit a six off the last ball of the innings to script an amazing 5-wicket win for Mumbai Indians over a valiant Deccan Chargers at the Y.S.Rajsekhara Reddy Stadium here today. u00a0u00a0
Chasing a target of 139, Mumbai Indians scored 142 for five with Rohit Sharma scoring a match-winning unbeaten 73 that included four fours and five sixes.
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It was Deccan's game going into the last over with Mumbai needing 18 runs off six balls. But Rohit had other plans. Daniel Christian was handed the ball and Rohit hit the Australian for two sixes, including the all-important one off the last ball to stun the partisan crowd into silence.
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Kiwi James Franklin, at the other end, gave him able support by scoring six off the first two balls before managing a bye that brought Sharma on strike with 12 needed off three.u00a0Sharma reduced the target to three off one with a six and a couple before sealing the deal by thumping Christian for the winning six.
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Kieron Pollard with a quickfire 24, that included three sixes, and Ambati Rayudu (19) the only other Mumbai players to reach double figures.
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It was a bitter pill for Deccan to swallow, but especially South African pacer Dale Steyn (3/12), who bowled his heart out and brought his team back into the game after their batsmen had failed to put up a formidable total.
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Rohit Sharma is esctatic after hitting a six off the final ball of the innings to guide Mumbai Indians to a fantastic 5-wicket win. Pic/AFPu00a0
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Earlier, Munaf Patel bowled a brilliant spell as Mumbai Indians restricted Deccan Chargers to 138 for nine. Patel took 4 for 20 as Deccan failed to make best use of their skipper Kumar Sangakkara winning the toss.
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Shikhar Dhawan top-scored for the hosts with 41, while Dan Christian added 39 and Cameron White was not out on 30.u00a0
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Munaf got able support from Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga who bagged three wickets for 27 runs while Kieron Pollard chipped in with two wickets.
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The match was, however, marred by controversy with Mumbai captain Harbhajan Singh having a heated and prolonged argument with the field umpires who mistakenly declared Deccan skipper Kumar Sangakkara not out.
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The incident happened in the 13th over of Deccan Chargers innings with Sangakkara clearly out off the bowling of Munaf. But the on-field umpires A K Chowdhury of India and JD Cloete of South Africa thought otherwise.
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Sangakkara dragged the ball onto the off-stump with the bails dislodged and the ball hit wickets for the second time after ricocheting from Mumbai wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
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A heated argument followed between Harbhajan and the field umpires with Munaf joining in and play stopped for more than five minutes. The field umpires, who apparently thought the ball had hit the wickets after coming off from Karthik's pads, eventually referred the decision to the third umpire who gave Sangakkara out as expected.
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