Abdulla to the rescue for Punjab
It was all down to the final over and a thrilling IPL match between the Mumbai Indians and the Kings XI Punjab would be resolved in a peculiarly South African drama.
With Mumbai needing 12 runs to win, Yusuf Abdulla of Punjab waited to bowl the ultimate "death" over to J P Duminy, who had just reached his half-century and had single-handedly guided his team to within a sniff of victory.
With the wildly excited crowd of 17 200 roaring their support for both men, Duminy ran a couple of twos and got the winning formula down to seven off three balls.
Then came the key moment as Duminy pulled a ball to the midwicket boundary. It initially looked like a six and almost certain victory, but the substitute fielder, Taruvar Kohli, showing the coolness of an ice man, plucked the ball from the sky centimetres inside the boundary rope.
Abdulla had won his South African battle and his team eventually pulled off a sensational victory by three runs against the odds.
Abdulla now has some imperishable memories to draw on, not least his effort last night when he captured 2/19 in his four overs, enabling his team to win their third consecutive match and move into the top half of the table.
This result was hardly on the cards after Punjab were restricted to just 119/8 in their 20 overs earlier in the evening. True, the slow Kingsmead pitch was shorn of grass and very dry, but surely the powerful Mumbai batting lineup would cruise to victory?
In their previous match Mumbai openers Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya clobbered the Kolkata Knight Riders for a record 127 and it seemed that they could cut out the risks and build the foundation for a comfortable victory.
Not for the first time in this exciting format, expectations were confounded as Irfan Pathan and Vikram Malik got rid of both men for just four runs.
First, Jayasuriya was caught at slip, edging a sharp lifter from Pathan, then Tendulkar failed to get on top of a square cut, slashing the ball straight to Mahela Jayawardene at point.
At this stage the ground was in an uproar but Duminy, showing all the composure he exhibited in the Test series against Australia, calmly got on with the business of building an innings.
He had some assistance from Dwayne Bravo and Abhishek Nayar but ultimately his glory was dashed from his grasp by a tubby lad from Dundee nicknamed "The heater", who now has nine wickets to his credit in the IPL.
Scoreboard
Toss:
Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab innings
R Bopara c Tendulkar b Bravo 6
K Goel st Shah b Singh 12
K Sangakkara not out 45
Y Singh c Khan b Duminy 10
M Jayawardene c Dhawan b Jayasuriya 7
I Pathan c Bravo b Khan 7
W Mota b Malinga 5
P Chawla b Malinga 0
R Powar run out 10
Extras (2lb, 11w, 4b) 17
Total
(8 wickets, 20 overs) 119
Fall of wickets:
1-18
2-18
3-41
4-52
5-84
6-97
7-97
8-119
Bowling:
Khan 4-0-19-1(1w)
Malinga 4-0-12-2(1w)
Singh 4-0-23-1
Bravo 3-0-24-1 (2w)
Duminy 3-0-23-1(1w)
Tendulkar 1-0-7-0(1w)
Jayasuriya 1-0-5-1
Mumbai Indians innings
S.Tendulkar c Jayawardene b Malik 1
S.Jayasuriya c Singh b Pathan 0
S.Dhawan lbw Abdulla 3
JP Duminy c sub b Abdulla 59
D.Bravo c Mota b Powar 15
A.Nayar b Pathan 15
H.Singh c Goel b Chawla 6
S.Tiwary not out 6
Z.Khan not out 0
Extras ( 1lb,1b, 8w, 1nb ) 12
Total
(7 wickets, 20 overs) 116
Fall of wickets:
1-1
2-4
30-12
4-45
5-94
6-101
7-113
Bowling:
Pathan 4-0-20-2 (2w)
Malik 2-0-12-1 (1nb)
Powar 4-0-23-1(1w)
Abdulla 4-0-19-2 (3w)
Chawla 3-0-26-1
Goel 2-0-11-0 (1w)
Mota 1-0-3-0
Result:
Kings XI won by 3 runs.