New Delhi: Despite chasing a mammoth target of 203 to win, Rajasthan Royals nearly made a match out of the final against Mumbai Indians before Harbhajan Singh struck in the 15th over to take Shane Watson’s wicket and thereafter sent Ajinkya Rahane, Staurt Binny and Kevon Cooper back to the dug-out and handed Mumbai the second Champions League T20 trophy at Feroseshah Kotla stadium, here on Sunday.
Earlier, despite a sedate start, the Rohit Sharma-led team went on to set a massive winning target of 203 runs before the Royals, as they went on to add over 142 runs in the last 10 overs.
Batting first, Mumbai got off to a decent start as the opening duo of Dwayne Smith and Sachin Tendulkar, who was playing his last T20 match of his career, went on to add 35 runs before the Master Blaster was clean bowled by Shane Watson on 15. Thereafter, Amabati Rayudu and Smith played cautiously and took their team to 77 before Smith was bowled out by veteran Pravin Tambe for 44. Rohit Sharma came on to join Rayudu and thereafter began the onslaught of Rajasthan bowlers.
Rohit Sharma came up with a valuable 33 off 14 balls while Glenn Maxwell's 14-ball 37 cameo in the end took the IPL champions past 200-run mark.
Later, Rajasthan Royals were in for a big trouble as they lost Kushal Perara in the very first over, but Ajinkya Rahane (65) and Sanju Samson (60) chipped in with quickfire half-centuries to give their a realistic chance to chase the total.
However, Mumbai Indians bowlers came up with impressive bowling performance towards the fag end of their innings to have the last laugh. Harbhajan Singh finished with impressive 4-0-32-4 with three wickets coming in just one over, which proved to be the turning point of the match. Kieron Pollard chipped in with three wickets for 31.
From 155 for three in 16 overs, the Royals collapsed dramatically to lose as many as six wickets for just 14 runs.