Champions League T20: Mumbai Indians Edge Out Trinidad & Tobago In Low-Scoring Thriller

At the half-way stage of the game, it was Mumbai Indians’ match to lose. Over the next 20 overs, they had done enough to inflict a loss on to themselves and yet, a tactical error from the captain Daren Ganga allowed them to win the match by a whisker off the last ball.

Needing two off the final ball of the game, Ganga kept the field back to the fence with a bid to go for a tie, last man Yuzvendra Chahal flicked one towards the leg-side and by the time the fielder had got to the ball and thrown it back, Mumbai had won the game.

But this was not before a chase of a paltry total of 99 had looked like at least a 100 more.

Much of the turnaround for the team in red had been brought about by the bowling of Ravi Rampaul, who scalped three wickets in his first spell and the spin duo of Samuel Badree and Sunil Narine. The pair exploited the tiniest of assistance that the pitch provided them and exposed the soft middle-order of the Mumbai Indians by conceding only 24 from their eight overs. And there were three wickets put in there somewhere as well.

It must be added here that there was nothing in the pitch that suggested that 40 overs into the evening only 197 runs would have been scored. In fact, when Trinidad and Tobago got to 41/1 in the fifth over, the commentators had ticked 160 as an achievable score batting second and 175 as something closer to a match-winning one.

98 was a big letdown then and the game seemed to have been relegated to a quick finish at the halfway mark.

As has been the case throughout their Champions League T20 careers though, the Trinidad and Tobago side can never be counted out though. They had the big talents in Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo – both of whom are now playing for other franchises – but even without their presence, they are scrappers who refuse to give in. And much like the West Indian team of yesterday defending 115 successfully against England, Trinidad and Tobago almost pulled a rabbit out of the hat against Mumbai Indians.

Aiden Blizzard threw his wicket away to a wild swing, T Suman fared no better at his shot selection while James Franklin’s lack of footwork saw him to his end. Andrew Symonds’ poor run as a freelance cricketer continued when he missed a yorker from Rampaul and the timber behind was rearranged while Pollard’s painstaking stay at the crease ended off the umpteenth chance that he offered his former teammates.

Mumbai recovered from 33/5 to get closer to the target but the asking rate kept mounting till before Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga both hit a six apiece in the final overs. The second of those sixes brought the equation down from needing 11 off the last over, to three from three.

Malinga’s run-out off the fourth ball and Rayadu’s off the fifth meant that the Mumbai Indians needed two for a win from the last delivery. Fortunately for the Mumbai Indians, Ganga, who had had a beautiful game as a captain till that time, erred in not bringing the field up and Chahal got the couple he needed.