It was an IPL double-header of almost unbearable tension at Kingsmead on Thursday, with both matches going down to the final balls of the last over as a record crowd of 18 360 spectators were royally entertained and driven half-crazy with excitement.
In the late match, the Rajasthan Royals, led by skipper Shane Warne who claimed the man of the match award with 3/24, scored a sensational two-run victory with a ball to spare over the Mumbai Indians in a match that simply refused to lie down. Chasing 145 for victory, Mumbai seemed dead and buried at 64/4 after 12 overs after they had surprisingly rejigged their batting, moving their stars down the order. Mumbai, in fact, only scored two boundaries in the opening half of their innings in an insipid display of batting.
But then Sachin Tendulkar got going, smashing 40 in 30 balls, before Abhishek Nayar picked up the little man's glittering baton, hammering 35 in 18 balls as Mumbai turned the match around. But just when Mumbai seemed home and dry, needing four to win with three wickets in hand in the final over, it all went sour for the chasing team with Dhawal Kulkarni, Chetanya Nanda and Lasith Malinga all perishing, two by runout.
In the early match, Ross Taylor played his second consecutive winning knock for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, -
The early match was a must-win affair for Bangalore, boosting their hopes of making the semifinals, but they nearly blew what should have been a routine run chase after they had bowled and fielded superbly to restrict Chennai to 129 all out.
Albie Morkel quickly got rid of Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa while Rahul Dravid punched one straight to cover and Bangalore found themselves three down for 30.
At this stage, however, Taylor and former India Under-19 captain Virat Kohli joined forces in the only significant partnership of the innings. The two men batted sensibly to add 56 in 58 balls for the fourth wicket.
Taylor, who blasted 81 in 33 balls to blitz the Kolkata Knight Riders in Bangalore's last match, cooled his natural aggression as he adapted to the very different circumstances, rotating the strike and keeping the scoreboard ticking with ones and twos. His 46 took him 50 balls and included only two fours and a six, but he took his team to the brink of victory as he faced the first ball of the final over with just five runs to win.
He then played his first thoughtless shot, top-edging a hoick to wicketkeeper MS Dhoni. Fortunately for Bangalore, the two Kumars, Vinay and Praveen, knocked off the required runs with Vinay slicing the fourth ball of Jacob Oram's over to the boundary.
Earlier, it was the Matthew Hayden show once again for Chennai with the big left-hander blasting another superb half-century, his fourth of the tournament.