Australia’s Daniel Sams defended nine off the last over to give the Mumbai Indians a five-run win against the Gujarat Titans on Friday.
Chasing 178 for victory, Gujarat were sailing along at 156-3 when skipper Hardik Pandya was run out and Mumbai seized the moment to make a comeback at the Brabourne Stadium.
David Miller, who made an unbeaten 19 in his 100th IPL match, and Rahul Tewatia, attempted to complete the chase but left-arm quick Sams denied the opposition with just three runs in the 20th over that included a run out.
Openers Wriddhiman Saha (55) and Shubman Gill (52) added 106 but Murugan Ashwin sent the duo back to the dugout in his fourth over.
Gujarat, one of the two new teams in the expanded 10-team IPL, still stay top of the table but went down to their second successive loss.
Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai, the richest and most successful side in IPL history with five titles, won their second straight match but remain bottom of the heap.
Earlier Tim David’s unbeaten 44 off 21 balls guided Mumbai to 177-6 after Gujarat’s bowlers pulled things back in the middle overs.
Rohit, who made 43 off 28 balls, and Ishan Kishan, who top-scored with 45, gave the team a flying start with a 74-run opening stand after being invited to bat first.
Rohit came alive with the bat as he smashed Alzarri Joseph for two successive fours and a six in the second over to signal his aggressive intent.
The all-format India skipper looked set to get his first fifty of this season but leg-spinner Rashid Khan trapped him lbw in a decision that was turned down by the on-field umpire before being successfully reviewed.
Kishan, Mumbai’s wicketkeeper-batsman who was brought back for $2 million in the auction, kept up the attack with Suryakumar Yadav who failed to keep up his start when he perished for 13.
Kishan fell to Alzarri Joseph and Rashid sent back a struggling Kieron Pollard, for four, as Mumbai began to falter.
But David then took the attack to the opposition with four sixes in his late blitz to boost the total.
© Agence France-Presse
