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.
Lions’ fate was now in Faulkner’s hands. Tye, used for the first time in the sixth over, by which time Mumbai had flown away, injured his shoulder in the field and had to be stretchered off. He could bowl just one over. Faulkner had kept Lions alive with the run-out of Jos Buttler and wickets of Rohit Sharma and Parthiv in the 14th over. He now had to bowl to Buttler, Kieron Pollard and Rohit in the Super Over.
Pollard announced to Faulkner that his birthday was approaching its end with a four and a six; 11 after three balls looked ominous. Faulkner, though, came back with wickets off the next two balls. Ishan Kishan, who had scored 48 to set up Lions’ innings, took a pressure catch at point off a swirling skier from Buttler swirled. Mumbai hadn’t even faced their quota of six balls in the Super Over.
By the time Bumrah began his over, the date had changed. It was down to Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum. Bumrah had had a bitter-sweet match. He had taken the wickets of Raina and Faulkner, but he had also bowled two no-balls. There was no more room for more mistakes. Were Mumbai now thinking of those no-balls? Or the simple catch dropped in the final over, which could have bowled Lions out for eight fewer than they ended up with?
Bumrah bowled the perfect yorker, except that he had delivered his third no-ball of the night. Finch, the man on strike, expected another yorker, and felt the way to beat Bumrah off his rhythm was to look for the ramp on the free-hit. Bumrah bowled the perfect dipping yorker again, and conceded just one leg-bye.
Now with 10 required off five, McCullum took strike. He too moved around in the crease to upset Bumrah’s rhythm. He possibly succeeded. Bumrah went wide outside off, but McCullum held his ground, and the dipping slower ball was ruled a wide. Nine off five now.
Bumrah released what looked like the fast yorker. McCullum shaped up to get under it, but midway through, it seemed like a balloon that had been deflated. It was a perfect slower ball, dipping late, squeezing under McCullum’s bat. Another slower ball arrived next ball and dipped under McCullum’s bat. Only some ordinary keeping from Parthiv – a reminder that the night had been about a lot of average cricket – allowed them a bye.
Lions now needed eight off three balls. Bumrah went back to a yorker to Finch, who looked to make room and swung inside the line, and was lucky to not be bowled. Bumrah had by now delivered six balls without letting two of the biggest hitters in the world get bat on ball. The death of the yorker might be overstated after all.
Finally Bumrah erred, but Finch could only take a single off the full toss, leaving McCullum seven to win off the last ball. Even if he had hit a six, Mumbai would have won by the virtue of having hit one more boundary than their opponents in regulation time and Super Over put together. (Cricinfo)
