The IPL 2012 seems to be getting more and more exciting as the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune saw another last ball finish in a low scoring thriller. Mumbai Indians emerged victorious by just one run. Mumbai Indians were batting first and this time Franklin was the one to partner Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the innings. Mumbai have been trying a whole lot of opening partnerships and they need to sort it out as early as possible. Tendulkar and Franklin began in style and notched up 50 runs in the 8th over. Franklin tried to hit Bhuvaneshwar Kumar out of the park and was caught in the outfield by Manhas for 25. The in form man Rohit Sharma too did not last long as he was run out for 3. Mumbai Indians were suddenly 56/2 at the end of 9 overs. Robin Peterson was promoted to no. 4 in the batting order to provide the much needed momentum to the Mumbai innings. Mumbai scored 22 in the next 2 overs and had reached 78/2 after 11 overs.
But fortune fluctuated towards the home side when Nehra got rid of Tendulkar for 34 and then bounced Peterson out for 13. Mumbai Indians continued to lose wickets as Rayudu, Perera and Harbhajan could not contribute much. Mumbai Indians were looking down the barrel at 99/7 after 18 overs when Karthik and Malinga struck a couple of meaty blows to take the Mumbai score to 120/9 in 20 overs. Kumar and Nehra were the pick of the bowlers as far as Pune Warriors were concerned as they picked 2 wickets each. 4 Mumbai batsmen threw away their wickets via run outs.
Pune Warriors were very happy with their bowling performance and were eyeing a certain victory. Uthappa and Ryder were sent to open the innings and get the runs as quickly as possible. Pune got a steady start as they reached 19/0 in 3 overs. Uthappa was the first to go on 18. Clarke was the next man in and he hit Munaf for 2 fours in an over to show his class. But disaster struck then for Pune as they lost Ryder, Clarke and Smith in quick succession and found themselves reeling at 47/4 at the end of 10 overs. Ganguly and Manhas had to do the repair job and guide their team to victory. They ensured that Pune did not lose any more wicket and scored runs a bit slowly. Pune Warriors were now 74/4 after 15 overs and needed 47 of the last 30 balls.
Malinga struck at the right time and he knocked Ganguly over for 16. Parnell too did not last long and departed for 2. Pune needed 16 of the last two overs and Manhas was the man who needed to do the job for them. Malinga bowled a splendid penultimate over, leaving 12 to be defended of the last over. Munaf did not disappoint and he prevented Pune from getting to the target. Mumbai won the match by 1 run and remained at no. 3 in the points table. Manhas was stranded at the other end at 42 not out of 34 balls. Pune have certainly themselves to blame for the loss and their chances of reaching the Play Offs are very dim. They need to win all of their last 5 games to get to the Play Offs and that is a tough task for any team.
Here are the scores:
MI-120/9 (20)
Tendulkar-34 (35)
Franklin-25 (23)
B.Kumar-2/9
Nehra-2/19
PWI-119/6 (20)
Manhas-42* (34)
Uthappa-18 (18)
Harbhajan-2/18
Malinga-2/25
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