Visakhaptnam: Rohit Sharma smashed a towering six in the very last ball to steer Mumbai Indians to a dramatic five-wicket victory against Deccan Chargers in a nerve-wrecking IPL match here on Monday.
Chasing 139 for victory, Mumbai looked like losing their second consecutive match before being saved by the heroics of Rohit who remained unbeaten on 73 which he made from 50 balls with the help of four fours and five sixes.
Mumbai needed 19 runs from the dramatic last over bowled by Daniel Christian and Rohit hit two sixes, including off the last ball to script a sensational victory at the Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy Cricket Stadium.
James Franklin hit a four off the first ball of the last over and Rohit hit a six before he scampered home with a full-length dive in the penultimate ball for a double. Mumbai needed four from the last ball for a win and Rohit hit a six, triggering wild celebrations at the Mumbai dressing room.
Deccan seemed to have pocketed their first win of the tournament in their second match with South African pacer Dale Steyn (3/12) bowling with fire and accuracy.
The match was, however, marred by controversy with Mumbai captain Harbhajan Singh having a heated and prolonged argument with the field umpires.
The incident happened in the 13th over of Deccan Chargers innings with Sangakkara clearly out off the bowling of Munaf though the field umpires A K Chowdhury of India and JD Cloete of South Africa thought it otherwise initially.
Sangakkara dragged the ball onto the off-stump with the bails dislodged and the ball hit wickets for the second time after ricocheting from Mumbai wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
A heated argument followed between Harbhajan and the field umpires with Munaf joining in and play stopped for more than five minutes. Harbhajan was seen arguing with the umpires in an aggressive manner, apparently telling them why they did not refer the decision to the third umpire.
The field umpires, who apparently thought the ball hit wickets after coming off from Karthik’s pads, eventually referred the decision to the third umpire who gave Sangakkara out as expected. Bowling with the deadly combination of pace and accuracy, Steyn reduced Mumbai to 10/2 in the fourth over. He had opener TL Suman (5) caught and bowled in the second over with a superb show of reflex action. (PTI)