Rohit prospers from Christian meltdown

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Cricket365
April 12, 2012

Daniel Christian coughed up all of 20 runs in the final over of the match and Rohit Sharma cashed in to the fullest extent as the Mumbai Indians beat the Deccan Chargers by five wickets.

Daniel Christian coughed up all of 20 runs in the final over of the match and Rohit Sharma cashed in to the fullest extent as the Mumbai Indians beat the Deccan Chargers by five wickets in Monday's thrilling Indian Premier League clash in Visakhapatnam.

Quick to link up with his franchise after Sri Lanka's tour to England, Chargers captain Kumar Sangakkara proved triumphant at the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a relatively flat track.

His choice got off to a shaky start as Parthiv Patel and Bharat Chipli fell for a single each, but Shikhar Dhawan and Christian soon rectified the innings with 41 and 39 respectively.

Cameron White followed later with a 30-run cameo, but there was always an inadequate look to the total after Munaf Patel snared four wickets and Lasith Malinga three.

Mumbai's reply received an initial jolt as Dale Steyn removed fellow Proteas star Richard Levi and Tirumalasetti Suman in successive overs.

Ambati Rayudu and Sharma then dug in across a 48-run alliance before the latter combined with Kieron Pollard for 37 runs. Once the West Indian big-hitter had holed out to one heave too many, the task was left almost entirely in the hands of Rohit.

Enjoying complementary support from Dinesh Karthik and James Franklin, the talented right-hander ultimately obliged his team to the tune of an unbeaten 73 from just 50 balls, four boundaries and five sixes included.

Two of those sixes were struck off Christian as the Australian seamer undid all the hard work put in by Steyn across a cheap penultimate over.

The final six deliveries of the cliffhanger read: four, two, one bye, six two, six. There was no denying that right-armer Christian, far too prone to the full toss, was upstaged by Man of the Match Sharma.

Monday's result saw Mumbai climb to third in the nine-team standings, while Deccan were left to wallow at the very bottom of the log after enduring their second defeat on the trot.