IPL's best final over finishes
Given the T20 format's propensity to provide late over heists, the Indian Premier League has been replete with many 11th hour heists that have proceeded to leave both the spectators and pundits bemused.
In the latest addition to the 11th-hour adventurism, Krishnappa Gowtham registered his name in the cricketing folklore as his 33-ball-11 helped Rajasthan Royals chase down the target of 168 against the Mumbai Indians, which at one stage, looked well-nigh impossible.
In this blog today, we will celebrate many such last over heists achieved by the batsmen during the course of ten years of the IPL.
Here's the compilation:
#5 Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Kolkata, 2013
In a bid to counter the spin threat of Sachitra Senanayake, Ravi Chandran Ashwin opened the innings for CSK alongside Michael Hussey. The move backfired to devastating proportions, as CSK lost wickets at regular intervals as none of Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, MS Dhoni, and Subramaniam Badrinath reached double figures in response to KKR's poultry 9-119.
Hussey bade his time with a 51-ball 40 and by the time he got out, the scoreboard read 6-89 and 37 still required off 20 balls. In walked Ravindra Jadeja.
Jadeja smashed a four and a six off Balaji to bring the equation down to 27 off last 3 overs. But it was far from over as the 18th over was to be bowled by Sunil Narine. Jadeja struck 10 off Narine's over to bring the equation down to 17 off the last 2, before proceeding to smack the first two balls of the penultimate over to virtually seal the deal for his side.
He finished with 36 off just 14 balls, to back it with his bowling figures of 3-20, to earn himself a much deserving Man of the Match award.