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Indians' gain now rests upon Super Kings' loss

New Delhi, Tue, 27 May 2008 NI Wire

Rajasthan Royals’ last ball win against Mumbai Indians on Monday evening sends Delhi Daredevils into the Semis, creating ambiguity both for Indians and Chennai Super Kings. In a yet another thriller, the Sachin Tendulkar led Mumbai couldn’t hold their nerves till the last moment and lost the match by 5 wickets.

As Delhi Daredevils became the third team to move to the Semis with 15 points Mumbai Indians chance to Semis is now hanging in Chennai Super Kings’ loss against Deccan Chargers who is so far behind in net run-rate. However, Mumbai too has to win its lone game against Bangalore Royal Challengers (scheduled on May 28) at least to equal Chennai’s present tally of 14

Chasing a target of 147 to win, the Royals fumbled with top order collapse but recovered well to score 15 runs in the last over of the match; a very similar one to that of Kolkata Knight Riders, who beat the heat to end its IPL journey with a winning note.

The Rajasthan though was able to win in the end but after losing five crucial wickets for 77-runs its chances diminished until youngsters Neeraj Patel (40 off 29) and Ravindra Jadeja (23 off 20) played a game of their best time to script the Royals’ seventh win in a row.

Earlier batting first, the Mumbai Indians made a healthier start with smart cricket both from Sanath Jayasuriya (38 off 37) and skipper Sachin Tendulkar (30 off 34) until Siddharth Trivedi struck a double blow in his back-to-back over removing both the openers. Shane Warne then removed Robin Uthappa (3) in the gloves of wicket keeper Kamran Akmal, and Sohail Tanvir did the rest claiming four wickets.

Abhishek Nayar (25 off 18) and wicket keeper Vijay Takawale (24 off 8) came handy to take the score board to 146 at the loss of seven wickets.

However, it was the last over of Dilhara Fernando which proved costly shattering the hope of Mumbai Indians for the semi-final clash. Now, only a defeat of Chennai in the hands of Hyderabad and Indians’ win against Bangalore can set Mumbai’s path to Semis.