IPL 5: DC-MI tie witnesses drama after umpiring error

Controversy erupted in the IPL match between Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians here Monday with the latter team's captain Harbhajan Singh having a heated and prolonged argument with the field umpires who committed a mistake in not giving a home side batsman out. The incident happened in the 13th over of Deccan Chargers' innings after they opted to bat first. Their captain Kumar Sangakkara was clearly out off the bowling of Munaf Patel though the field umpires thought it otherwise initially before referring the decision to the third umpire.

The third ball of Munaf Patel's third over and 13th of Deccan Chargers' innings saw Sangakkara dragging the ball onto the off-stump with the bails dislodged and the ball hit the wickets for the second time after ricocheting from Mumbai wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. Field Umpires AK Chowdhury of India and JD Cloete of South Africa consulted each other but thought that the ball came off Karthik's pads and ruled Sangakkara not out. That led to the drama with an angry-looking Harbhajan rushing towards the umpires and apparently asking Cloete why he did not go upstairs for a third umpire decision. 

A heated argument followed between Harbhajan and the field umpires with Munaf joining in and play stopped for more than five minutes. Deccan captain Sangakkara also had a word with the umpires who finally referred the decision to the third umpire. The third umpire gave Sangakkara out as was expected and play resumed.

 

Innings	Dot balls	4s	6s	Powerplay (0-6)	16-20 overs	NB/Wides
Deccan Chargers	39	6	8	45-2	29-5	0/4
Mumbai Indians	44	8	8	29-2	48-2	0/0

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IPL 5: Nerveless Rohit steers MI to last-ball win

Mumbai Indians 142 for 5 (Rohit 73*, Steyn 3-12) beat Deccan Chargers 138 for 9 (Dhawan 41, Christian 39, Munaf 4-20) by five wickets

The fifth edition of the IPL, which began in tepid fashion, finally had a nail-biter as Rohit Sharma hit the last ball of the match for six to seal a thrilling finish for Mumbai Indians against Deccan Chargers, who fought tooth and nail while defending 139. Daniel Christian, not the wisest choice for the final over, as very recent history tells us, dished out two full tosses to Rohit. One of them was off the final ball, which was dispatched over long-on to spark wild celebrations.

The Chargers were still favourites with 18 to defend off the last over. Kumar Sangakkara had bowled out his best bowler, Dale Steyn, leaving the final task with Christian. The first ball was smashed by James Franklin past long-off for four; the second down the same region; the batsmen sneaked a bye off the third; the fourth was a high full toss slammed by Rohit Sharma over deep backward point. With five needed off two, the penultimate ball was forced to long-off and Rohit Sharma timed his dive just in time to survive a run-out appeal. Christian couldn't come up with anything special, gifting Rohit Sharma the most hittable delivery of the over, breaking the hearts of the home fans who saw their side slip to a second straight defeat.

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