Royal Challengers Bangalore 115 for 3 in 9.4 overs (Mandeep 45*, Kohli 34) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 111 for 4 in 10 overs (Russell 45, Uthappa 23) by seven wickets
The penultimate ball of the penultimate over of the match. Umesh Yadav had his fine leg inside the circle, and Mandeep Singh stepped across his stumps to scoop the ball over the fielder. Deep backward square leg sprinted desperately to his right to stop the ball, but he had no chance. It had rained, and the outfield was a little slow, but this ball landed on a practice pitch and raced into the boundary.
Next ball, Mandeep skipped down the track and looked to swipe a length ball through mid-off. He ended up edging it to the third man boundary. In the space of two balls sprinkled with a fair measure of fortune, Royal Challengers Bangalore had gone from needing 21 to win from eight balls to needing 13 from six.
Such things happen all the time in Twenty20, but this was a rain-shortened 10-overs-a-side match. Even Ravi Shastri, interviewing the losing captain at the post-match presentation, commiserated with him, calling it a "lottery".
Mandeep, though, played a massive hand in deciding the fate of the lottery. He walked when Royal Challengers had just lost Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the space of six balls, when they needed 62 from 32 balls, and produced a stunning, unbeaten 18-ball 45 to power his team home with two balls remaining.
Mandeep's composure under pressure was fully tested, with only three runs coming off the first two balls of the final over, leaving 10 to get from four balls. He made room to get under an almost blockhole-length delivery from Andre Russell and carved him for a six over backward point, and pulled the next ball over deep backward square leg to send the Chinnaswamy Stadium into raptures.
Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli had given Royal Challengers the perfect start to a chase of 112 in 10 overs, but when Mandeep walked in, their batting depth was under test. Kohli fell when 32 were required from 17, but before that he and Mandeep had taken 18 off a Piyush Chawla over to tilt the momentum their way.
Rain pelted down almost immediately after Royal Challengers had chosen to bowl first, and delayed the start of play by two hours and 45 minutes. The reduction of overs meant this was now a contest between the power hitters from the two teams, but Kolkata Knight Riders didn't make any immediate changes to their batting order.
Gautam Gambhir put on 33 with Robin Uthappa at 8.60 an over, before slicing David Wiese in the air to point. Russell walked in, and immediately set to work, square-cutting Yuzvendra Chahal to the point boundary and smacking Varun Aaron for two sixes in the next over. Chahal dismissed Uthappa in the next over, but that was hardly noticeable in the midst of Russell's clean striking.
Two powerful straight hits off Wiese took Knight Riders to 86 for 2 at the end of the eighth over. Ryan ten Doeschate joined in the fun with a six and a four in the next over, off Harshal Patel, before a smart bit of thinking from Dinesh Karthik - who kept wickets without his right glove - brought about Russell's wicket while the batsmen tried to sneak a bye.
Russell had clouted 45 off 17, and maybe Knight Riders could have scored a few more had he been in the middle to face the final over. As it happened, Mitchell Starc gave away only nine runs - despite bowling a wide and a contentious no-ball - and 111 proved just within reach of Royal Challengers' line-up.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 192 for 7 (Warner 61, Bravo 3-25) beat Chennai Super Kings 170 for 6 (Du Plessis 33, Henriques 2-20, Bhuvneshwar 2-32) by 22 runs
David Warner's fifth half-century in eight innings set up Sunrisers Hyderabad's fourth win of the season. Warner belted 12 boundaries off his first 21 deliveries to make 61 off 28, his innings launching Sunrisers to 192 for 7 in their first game this year in Hyderabad.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Moises Henriques took vital wickets in the chase to see off Chennai Super Kings comfortably. The match, however, turned decisively when Ashish Reddy ran out Faf du Plessis in the 13th over to break a 46-run stand, and then bowled MS Dhoni next ball to reduce Super Kings to 114 for 5. Getting more than two a ball after that against the accuracy of the Sunrisers seamers was too much for the lower middle order, and though Super Kings lost only one more wicket, they finished well behind on 170 for 6.
That was the score Warner had said was par on the bouncy Hyderabad pitch, and that his side ended up getting much closer to 200 was largely down to him, again. The Super Kings seamers, especially Mohit Sharma, thought that the short ball would work against Warner. The Sunrisers captain took them apart, launching a blaze of punches, cuts and pulls as the hosts sped to 76 for 0 in the first six overs.
Warner's opening partner Shikhar Dhawan again struggled to get off strike, and when the Australian fell to Suresh Raina in the ninth over, Dhawan was on a run-a-ball 22.
Moises Henriques was promoted to No. 3 and biffed a few to carry on the momentum. After Dhawan was run out on 37 off 32 as he strolled for a second run, Naman Ojha lashed some boundaries to take the score past 150.
Eoin Morgan had come in at No. 4 but was able to make some impact only at the finish to return with an unbeaten 32 off 27.
Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum arrived swinging hard but could not last beyond the Powerplay. McCullum played on off Bhuvneshwar in the second over after hitting Trent Boult for three successive fours. Smith holed out for 21 trying to target the slower pace of Henriques. Raina soon met with the same fate, another middling score keeping his average for the season to an underwhelming 25.
Super Kings had slipped to 68 for 3 with Raina's exit, but du Plessis and Dhoni were playing sensibly and still keeping up with the asking-rate. With 79 needed off 45 and seven wickets in hand, Super Kings were right in the game, but Reddy's double-strike changed that.
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