Rohit Sharma smashed a towering six off the last ball to steer Mumbai Indians to a dramatic five-wicket victory over Deccan Chargers in a nerve-wrecking IPL match in Visakhapatnam 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 came off 50 balls, inclusive 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 one 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 off the penultimate ball for a double.
Mumbai needed four from the last ball for victory and Rohit hit a six, triggering wild celebrations in the Mumbai dressing room.
Deccan seemed to have pocketed their first win of the tournament in their second match after South African pacer Dale Steyn (3-12) bowled 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 occured 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 on to the off-stump and the bails got dislodged; the ball hit the wickets for a second time after ricocheting off Mumbai wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
A heated argument followed between Harbhajan and the field umpires.Munaf joined in and play was 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 the wickets after coming off from Karthik's pads, eventually referred the decision to the third umpire, who gave Sangakkara out.
Earlier, Munaf grabbed four wickets as Mumbai Indians restricted Deccan Chargers for 138 for nine.
Patel bowled his usual accurate, wicket-to-wicket line which fetched him four wickets for 20 runs as Deccan failed to build sustained momentum in their innings after they opted to bat first.
Munaf got able support from Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga, who bagged three wickets for 27 runs, while Kieron Pollard chipped in with two wickets.
For Deccan, who lost their opening match against Chennai Super Kings on April 7 by 74 runs at home, Shikhar Dhawan top-scored with a rollicking 24-ball 41 and Daniel Christian chipped in with 39.
