Durban:
An absolute thrilling cameo from Virat Kohli (47 off 24 balls) turned
the 165-run chase into a spine-chilling last-ball climax that eventually
ended with Bangalore losing by just two runs at Kingsmead on Sunday.
Mumbai, though, crashed out of the tournament despite winning.
Chasing the
Mumbai score after Sachin Tendulkar elected to bat first, Old-guards
Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis got Bangalore off to a flying start
until debutant Abu Nechim struck to remove Kallis (15) and Dwayne Bravo
got Robin Uthappa (6) and Ross Taylor (9) caught in quick succession to
give Mumbai much-needed breakthroughs.
Indian
Statesman Dravid meanwhile completed his half century as the Bangalore
team neared 100. But as soon as they crossed the triple-figure mark,
Harbhajan Singh castled big-hitting Cameron White (7) to tilt scales in
Mumbai's favour.
Meanwhile,
Virat Kohli's innings soon gathered momentum, whacking Nechim for a six.
The young debutant, though, came back well in the same over to control
the damage.
The Delhi
batsman Kohli, playing for Bangalore, hit the death-over expert Malinga
for three consecutive boundaries in the penultimate over to leave his
team needing 13 runs off the last six balls.
Such was the
impact of Kohli's 24-ball 47 runs, that it made Dravid's 71-run effort
look pedestrian but in the end, both didn't prove enough.
Needing
three off the last Zaheer Khan ball, a top-edge off Kohli went straight
up that saw wicketkeeper Ambati Rayudu circling under it to safely glove
the ball and the match for Mumbai.
Man of the
Match Dwayne Bravo was the most successful bowler for Mumbai taking 2/23
in his four overs while Zaheer, Nechim and Harbhajan took one apiece.
Earlier in
the evening, Bangalore not only kept Mumbai's scoring in check but also
continued to chip in at the wickets, restricting Sachin's team to a
scoring rate of just over six at the halfway stage.
Praveen
Kumar removed Sachin (11) and Rayudu (3) was lapped in the slips by
Rahul Dravid off Vinay Kumar that signaled the worst possible start for
Mumbai.
Bangalore
bowlers continued to thwart every run-making attempt, with Kallis
removing fellow-countrymen Duminy (10) in the process.
Steyn
eventually marked his run-up in the 11th over and peppered Tiwary with
fast short-pitched stuff. The tactics of holding Steyn back paid the
richest dividends possible when Steyn gunned down both Dhawan (41) and
the dangerman Pollard (0), reducing Mumbai to a sorry-looking 84/5 in 13
overs.
Bravo's
dropped caught and bowled chance by Kumble proved costly, with the West
Indian turning it on for Mumbai with a 17-ball cameo of 29 runs. It
turned out to be the much-needed fillip for the Mumbai innings that
looked in tatters for the most part.
The 18th
over, bowled by Kumble, went for 22 runs, where Bravo hit two towering
sixes and a boundary. It also brought up the 50-run partnership between
Bravo and Tiwary.
Steyn,
though, soon took care of Bravo, which saw Tiwary taking over with 38
runs of 30 balls. And when Harbhajan (14) too got a few useful runs at
the end, the IPL runners-up notched up a challenging 165/7.
Anil Kumble
not only went wicket-less but gave away 45 runs in his four overs. Daley
Steyn was the pick of the Bangalore bowlers with 3/26.
