Shaun Marsh hit 81 off 56 balls in Punjab's 189...
A see-saw last over - which included a six, a four, a dropped catch and three run-outs - allowed Kings XI Punjab to end Mumbai Indians' six-match winning streak and boost their hopes for a place in the semi-finals.
Shaun Marsh and Luke Pomersbach's 134-run stand laid the platform but it was Punjab's accurate bowling at the death under pressure that brought the game to a head in the final over.
Mumbai needed 19 off the last six balls and had three wickets in hand with Siddharth Chitnis and Dilhara Fernando out in the middle. VRV Singh bowled a waist-high no-ball up front and Chitnis hit it for a six over third man. The next delivery was full and wide and Chitnis lifted it over extra cover where Tanmay Srivastava dropped a difficult catch and Mumbai needed eight off five balls. Srivastava was back in the action in the next ball when he threw the ball back to the keeper and Chitnis was run out trying to take a second run off.
Seven off four and new batsman Ashish Nehra sneaked a bye to get Dilhara Fernando on strike. Fernando drove a fuller delivery through cover and it was Srivastava again who fielded the ball to run out Nehra as the batsmen tried for a risky third run. Four runs off two balls with one wicket remaining - Vikrant Yeligati dropped the ball on the pitch and the batsmen ran two as Punjab's fielders muffed up what would have been the fifth run-out of the innings. Yeligati faced the final ball needing two and drove to mid-off before setting off for the fateful runs. But before he could get to the other end, Yuvraj Singh collected the ball at mid-off and ran towards the stumps to knock them down at full stretch.
But Mumbai had threatened to topple over Punjab's formidable target while Sachin Tendulkar was still at the crease. Punjab's bowlers nearly undid the efforts of Marsh and Pomersbach, starting with the first two overs.
Sreesanth started off the innings with three wides - the second racing past the keeper to the boundary - and Irfan Pathan followed with over-pitched deliveries that Sanath Jayasuriya sent for two sixes over long-on and two fours in front of and behind the wicket. However Sreesanth recovered in his next over to trap Jayasuriya lbw with a legcutter. But Tendulkar took hold of the reins thereafter and punished VRV Singh's poor length with fours to fine leg and third man. He reached his fifty by cheekily lobbing a Yuvraj Singh delivery to third-man boundary.
Though the required run-rate was more than nine an over, Punjab's bowlers did not apply any pressure and conceded a boundary in virtually every over. Also, other than Marsh, no Punjab fielder saved enough runs to make Mumbai's task tougher. Pomersbach dropped Abhishek Nayar in the deep on nine off VRV and Nayar made use of the life to belt two sixes and a four off the bowler's next over. But once Tendulkar was run out, when Rohin Uthappa sent him back from taking a single, the Punjab bowlers smelt an opening. Yuvraj Singh, who had gone for 10 runs in his first over, got Shaun Pollock to edge the first ball he faced to Piyush Chawla at short third man. Uthappa, the only proper batsman left, felt the pressure to go after the runs and was caught in the same over trying to clear long-on.
Then Sreesanth came back for his final over to remove Pinal Shah, conceded only eight runs in the process. That set up the final-over drama.
Sachin Tendulkar's wicket brought Punjab back in to the game...But it was really Marsh and Pomersbach's partnership that gave Punjab the fuel to fight with. Marsh was the more orthodox of the two, playing the spinners by getting inside the line while cutting and pulling the faster bowlers. While both used their feet against the spinners, Marsh cashed in by lofting Yeligati inside-out for a six over long-off and Chitnis for one over long-on. Pomersbach, meanwhile, was in a hurry to score and repeatedly stepped out of the crease, mistiming more often than not. He failed to connect when trying to sweep the spinners and also swung his bat wildly at Fernando's slower deliveries. But two brutal shots came off his bat in the third over against Nehra - he lifted a good length delivery for six over long-off before swivelling round to pull a four to midwicket.
However it was Marsh who directed the partnership. He hooked Fernando for a six to fine leg and flicked Chitnis to four to take Punjab past 50 in the seventh over. He got to his fifty in 35 balls. The two ran hard between the wickets and apart from Shaun Pollock, early in the innings, no other bowler looked threatening enough to dislodge them.
Eventually it was Punjab who held their nerve in the final minutes and that decided the match in their favour.
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