April 10, 2012
A last-ball six hit by Rohit Sharma sealed the victory for Mumbai Indians who defeated Deccan Chargers by 5 wickets at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam. Mumbai Indians needed 18 runs to win from the final over.
April 10, 2012
A last-ball six hit by Rohit Sharma sealed the victory for Mumbai Indians who defeated Deccan Chargers by 5 wickets at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam. Mumbai Indians needed 18 runs to win from the final over.
Franklin smacked the first delivery towards the long-off boundary and Rohit Sharma hit six, 2 runs and another six to seal the match in style for the Mumbai Indians. Mumbai needed four runs to win from the last ball as Daniel Christian bowled a juicy full toss and Sharma clobbered it over long-on for a six!
It was a good show by the Deccan Chargers who got off to a brisk start provided by Shikhar Dhawan who scored 41 runs from 24 balls. He hit 18 runs in the sixth over bowled by Pragyan Ojha. Daniel Christian (39) and Craig White (30) made sure that they had a challenging total to chase for Mumbai which has a strong batting line-up. Hyderabad managed to score 138 runs at the end of 20 overs. Munaf Patel bowled a brilliant spell where he picked up four wickets for just 20 runs in his quota of ten overs.
Chasing the paltry total, Mumbai got off to a disastrous start as they lost both their openers for just ten runs. Explosive Levi was bowled of a great yorker by Steyn who consistently bowled at express pace. Rayudu and Sharma added 48 runs for the third wicket avoiding any further damage as the run-rate increased. Towards the end, Kieron Pollard played a small cameo hitting massive sixes, three of them, as he scored 24 runs from 18 balls.
Apart from Rohit’s brilliant innings, the match will also be remembered for a fiery spell bowled by Dale Steyn who once again showed why he remains to be the number one fast bowler in the world. He gave away just 12 runs in 4 overs and picked up three crucial wickets. It was Steyn's bowling which made Mumbai struggle till the last ball.
In spite of the result, it was the first cliff-hanger of this years’ Indian Premier League. It could have gone either ways if Christian had not bowled two full-tosses in the deciding over. But one cannot take the credit from Rohit Sharma who hung till the end and played a remarkable match-winning knock (73 from 50 balls) which also earned him the Man of the Match.
