Gujarat Lions 153 for 9 (Kishan 48, Tye 25, K Pandya 3-14, Bumrah 2-32) tied with Mumbai Indians 153 (Parthiv 70, K Pandya 29, Thampi 3-29, Faulkner 2-34)
Super Over: Mumbai Indians 11 (Pollard 10, Faulkner 2-11) beat Gujarat Lions 6 for 0 (Bumrah 0-4) by 5 runs
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| Agarkar: Exceptional skill under pressure from Bumrah |
In what became a street fight on a dry surface, Gujarat Lions produced
some gun run-outs to force a tie, but in the tiebreaker, the top gun, Jasprit Bumrah
bowled a sensational Super Over to defend 11 runs and give Mumbai
Indians the joint lead at the top of the table, with Kolkata Knight
Riders. For most parts, perhaps because of a slow pitch, this match was
more about who wanted to lose it more badly, but in the final moments
both sides raises their games to deliver a Twenty20 spectacle.
In the absence of the injured Andrew Tye, James Faulkner
deflated Mumbai's rollicking chase of 154 with his cutters to bring the
target to 15 off two overs. Basil Thampi then produced two wickets in
the 19th over to make it 12 required off six balls with three wickets in
hand. The only man keeping his head for Mumbai until now was Krunal Pandya, who was on 19 off 16, after having registered his best T20 bowling figures earlier in the match.
To the last ball of the 19th over, Mitchell McClenaghan played a ramp
with fine leg back. He was always going to sacrifice his wicket to bring
Krunal on strike for the first ball of the last over, but this stroke
fell precariously short of the charging Irfan Pathan. Playing for his
sixth IPL team, once again as a second thought as has been the case in
the last three seasons, Irfan's first over had been butchered for 16 by
Parthiv Patel, who scored 70 off 44.
Irfan kept charging at the ball, which fell well short and spun away
from him. Not only did he stick out his hand in the other direction to
prevent the boundary, he also ran McClenaghan out with a direct hit from
fine leg. Riding on that momentum, Irfan came in to bowl his second
over, and started off with a half-volley first ball. Krunal, who had
done all the hard work, smoked it for a straight six.
With the game now looking done, with four required off four balls,
Bumrah tapped one towards point and set off for what is a regulation
single nowadays in the final overs. Ravindra Jadeja, though, had other
ideas. He charged in, swooped on the ball, and knocked down the stumps
at the bowler's end. Krunal had regained strike, and punched the next
slower ball through the vacant third man region for a couple. He did the
pragmatic thing by taking the single available on the fifth ball to tie
the scores.
Now Irfan bowled to Lasith Malinga. Aware the batsmen were going to run
no matter what, a fielder stood by the stumps at the bowler's end as
Irfan ran in. He bowled full, hit Malinga's pad, Krunal hared through,
and Jadeja at point got the ball on the full. Instead of going at
Malinga's end, he went to the striker's, and beat the dive of Krunal by a
frame, hitting the only stump visible to him. Lions' fielding had
forced a tie after they had dropped two catches.
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