The West Indies’ Dwayne Bravo hit a last-ball six to guide the Chennai Super Kings to a five-wicket victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday, while the Mumbai Indians beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by the same margin in the Indian Premier League.
Ambati Rayudu hit an unbeaten 81 and Kieron Pollard remained undefeated on 52 as Mumbai made 173-5 with two balls to spare after the Royal Challengers put up a competitive target of 171-6.
Bravo (11) lofted seamer Rajat Bhatia’s full toss over long-on at Eden Gardens as the Chennai Super Kings made 160-5 after the Knight Riders had posted 158-6 off their 20 overs.
Photo: AFP
Both Rayudu and Pollard shared a match-winning 122 runs for the sixth wicket stand off 65 deliveries after the Mumbai Indians lost star batsman Sachin Tendulkar for a duck and were struggling on 51-5.
Rayudu’s knock came off 54 balls, featuring six fours and four sixes. Pollard, who hit five fours and three sixes, raised his half-century when he hit Chris Gayle for the winning boundary in the final over.
Needing 14 to win, Pollard flicked off-spinner Gayle over the midwicket fence for a six, before hitting two successive fours.
Earlier, Mayank Agarwal hit six fours and four sixes in scoring an unbeaten 64 off only 30 balls to lift the Royals total, hitting seamer Munaf Patel for 24 runs in the final over of the innings.
The Mumbai Indians now have 18 points from 14 matches. They share top spot with the Delhi Daredevils, who are on the same points, but have a game in hand.
The Royal Challengers are in fifth place in the nine-team league with 15 points after winning seven of their 14 matches.
The Super Kings’ opening pair of Michael Hussey (56) and Murali Vijay (36) put on 97 runs, before off-spinner Sunil Narine put the brakes on and removed both batsmen in the space of three balls.
The Super Kings needed five off Bhatia’s last ball of the match and Bravo smashed the full toss for six to take his team to fourth place with 17 points.
Earlier, Bhatia had featured in the three dismissals when he first had Suresh Raina run out and then claimed the wickets of Faf du Plessis (13) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28), clean bowled in the final over.
The Knight Riders could not capitalize on a fine start provided by their captain Gautam Gambhir (62) and Brendon McCullum (37), who shared a first-wicket stand of 99 off 69 balls.
The Knight Riders are also on 17 points, but are third because of a better run-rate than Chennai.
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