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)
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Super Over: Mumbai Indians 11 (Pollard 10, Faulkner 2-11) beat Gujarat Lions 6 for 0 (Bumrah 0-4) by 5 runs
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 joint lead at the top of the table along 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 it down to 15 required 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. Only man keeping his head for Mumbai until now was Krunal Pandya, who was on 19 off 16 after having registered his best 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 ball 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 sorted, with four required off four, Bumrah tapped one towards point and set off for what is a bit of 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, though, 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. They 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 Malinag’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.
Full report to follow…
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo