Ground staff covered the square immediately after the toss, but the fourth match of the Champions League T20 was called off around 90 minutes after that, with the ground having taken on a great deal of water. The rain, though, refused to let up, and resulted in the calling off of the next game about half an hour before its scheduled start.
The four teams - Otago Volts and Mumbai Indians were to play the second game - took two points each. Mumbai now have just two points from their first two games after they lost their opener to Rajasthan Royals. This was the first match for Lions, Otago and Scorchers.
Match 6: Titans 123 (Davids 39, Gale 4-10) beat Brisbane Heat 119 (Hopes 37, de Lange 3-13) by four runs
Less-than-perfect batting and excellent bowling usually make for tight contests and today was no different, with both teams being dismissed on a fast Mohali pitch. Titans bounced back from being all out for 123, to beating Brisbane Heat by four runs, in the most exciting finish of the tournament so far. The loss, the Heat's second, drastically reduced their chances of making the semi-finals.
Heat had lost their first match in similar fashion, too, failing to chase Trinidad & Tobago's 135. Today's pursuit posed a similar challenge, but they disintegrated against controlled fast bowling. They needed 10 of the final over, bowled by Marchant de Lange, but they lost three wickets instead, two because of run-outs. The match ended with de Lange bowling Alister McDermott.
Titans needed a strong performance to defend a low total and de Lange led the way, pulling his team out of the batting rut with pace and verve. Debutant Matthew Gale's four wickets had put the Heat in a strong position, but their wayward batting cost them on a quick surface, the kind Australian sides are supposed to be familiar with.
Titans captain, Henry Davids, once again opened the bowling with Roelof van der Merwe's left-arm spin, but it was Rowan Richards who provided the breakthrough by dismissing Joe Burns. De Lange then hurt the chase by striking twice in his first over: Peter Forrest's uppish clip was caught at square-leg, and Cutting top-edged an 89-mph ball he didn't know much about.
James Hopes, the Heat captain, and Daniel Christian attempted to revive the innings, and they almost did with a 44-run stand for the fourth wicket, but they fell in quick succession. Christian's stumps was shattered by Richards, while Hopes fell to van der Merwe after having survived a missed stumping the previous ball.
The rising asking-rate needed to be brought down but the Heat lower order continued to struggle against pace. Morne Morkel and David Wiese bowled well too, picking up a wicket each, but de Lange and Richards were the most impressive. De Lange finished with three wickets, including bowling a tense last over.
Heat's batting failure followed a dramatic Titans collapse after the South African side had made a strong start. Gale dismissed Jacques Rudolph in the second over, but Davids and Heino Kuhn counterattacked immediately during the fielding restrictions. They were particularly harsh on Alister McDermott, who conceded 16 in his first over, the sixth of the innings.
The second wicket had added 69 in quick time when Kuhn skied Ben Cutting after making 31 off 27 balls. Davids followed soon after for 39 off 31 balls, run out while attempting a risky single.
Wickets tumbled quickly thereafter, with the big one - AB de Villiers - also getting run out after a mix-up with Farhaan Behardien in the 15th over. The rest of the batsmen threw their wickets away, with the last three falling in the 19th over bowled by Gale. A total of 123 seemed below par at the time, but Titans' quicks proved it was just enough.
Match 7: Sunrisers Hyderabad 164 for 6 (Perera 57*, Narine 4-9) beat Trinidad and Tobago 160 for 8 (Bravo 66, Sammy 2-21) by four wickets
Sunrisers Hyderabad were subjected to an examination of their batting depth and, in their opening game of the tournament's main draw, showed that they could look after themselves even without much assistance from Shikhar Dhawan. Trinidad & Tobago were in control for the most part of the second innings, but Thisara Perera's fearless hitting narrowed the gap between the runs required and balls remaining to take Sunrisers home in a tense chase of 161.
The first game of the day - between Titans and Brisbane Heat - was a low-scoring one, with the fast bowlers taking control in helpful conditions. However, as the evening wore on, the dew became a factor and the margin for error was minimal for the bowlers, who struggled to bowl the lengths they wanted. Sunil Narine's parsimonious and incisive spell of 4 for 9 kept T&T in the hunt but Perera not only managed to survive him but ensured he stayed till the end. Perera's knock had its fair share of slogs that only connected thin air, some dangerously close to the outside edge, but he cleared the rope four times and his timely boundaries ensured Sunrisers were always in the hunt.
Dhawan gave Sunrisers a start with a brisk 23, but when he popped the simplest of catches to Navin Stewart, it was game on. It was then down to the experience of JP Duminy to restore some order, but his run-out - caught ball-watching - gave T&T the edge. Sunrisers were going at seven an over when Duminy was dismissed, and the required rate was over nine.
Perera walked in and smashed his second ball for six, over long-off. T&T had to be careful not to feed him length balls on middle and leg, Perera's favourite hitting zone. Rayad Emrit made the mistake of bowling there and was duly smashed for a four and six off consecutive balls to deep midwicket. Narine had a struggling Hanuma Vihari stumped for 18 and proceeded to bowl out a wicket maiden, silencing Darren Sammy who opted to see off T&T's best bowler.
Perera released the pressure the following over with two boundaries off Emrit. He had a lucky escape on 32 when he pulled Ravi Rampaul to deep midwicket, only for Lendl Simmons to palm the ball over the rope while attempting a tough catch. Emrit's final over cost T&T as he leaked 23. He started off with two wides before getting smashed by Sammy over deep midwicket. The dew may have been responsible for the low full tosses which were put away. Poor catching didn't help T&T's cause either as Sammy was also let off in the same over.
Narine returned for his final over to nip out two wickets in two balls, but Perera's was the wicket T&T were desperate for. It came down to seven needed off the last over but Perera showed enough trust in Karn Sharma, who sealed the win in style with a six over deep square leg.
After losing the toss, T&T had been boosted by Darren Bravo who adopted a similar aggressive approach on a surface that was seamer friendly. T&T looked set to post much more, but the Sunrisers seamers shared seven wickets between then to keep them down to a competitive 160.
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