The teams played equally well. The only difference that lay between the two teams of Kings XI Punjab and the Mumbai Indians was their ability to keep their calm. The latter team lost their confidence after Tendulkar’s dismissal and seemed confused. This chaos caused them the match and that too, by just 1 run. Shaun Marsh was the man of the match.
The toss was won by the Mumbai Indians who took to fielding first. The batting line up of the Kings team was not used much as only two batsmen worked for the whole team. Marsh and Hopes opened the game. Hopes, however was dismissed for a duck. Then came Pomersbach, and along with Marsh, built up a very good partnership. Marsh made 81 runs off 56 balls whereas Pomersbach scored a 50-ball 79 runs. 189 runs were made in total by the Kings XI team. Chitnis from the Mumbai team obtained 2 wickets.
The Mumbai team started well. Jayasuriya scored 20 runs before his dismissal. Sachin stayed on for longer along with Smith first and then Nayar. After the dismissal of these two batsmen at 20 and 27 runs respectively, Sachin too crashed at a score of 65 runs. This dismissal triggered the show down for Mumbai. The middle order of the team collapsed and the lower order could not any wonders either. This shows how much the team depends on the openers. The last over was the deciding one. The hopes of spectators rose with ten runs coming off two balls. But that was accompanied by three run outs which shattered the team. Only one run was required when the Kings XI team clinched a very memorable victory. Yuvraj Singh, happy with the victory, was however not very happy with the crowd. The city spirit seems to have taken the priority than the national spirit for the spectators that came to watch the match. Heavy words came from the skipper, most of which were very apt.
