DELHI — Mumbai Indians beat Rajasthan Royals by 33 runs to clinch the Champions League Twenty20 2013 trophy here Sunday. A three-wicket over — 17th of the Rajasthan Royals' innings — bowled by Harbhajan Singh proved to be pivotal in the game that had all the ebbs and flows akin to a compelling thriller. Needing 48 to win from 24 deliveries with Ajinkya Rahane batting on 65, Rajasthan had a decent chance to pull off an amazing heist.
The first ball of the over was a full-toss from Harbhajan hit straight to Dwayne Smith at deep mid-wicket. Harbhajan then had big-hitting Stuart Binny with the other one that bamboozled the Rajasthan middle-order batsman. Kevon Cooper began his innings with a four past short fine-leg. Harbhajan set him up with a flighted doosra which brought him out of his crease, enough for Dinesh Karthik to stump him out. That brought Rajasthan captain Rahul Dravid to the crease and he was out playing a slog off Nathan Coulter-Nile's yorker since Rajasthan needed more than 14 runs per over. Kieron Pollard took three wickets in the penultimate over dismissing Dishant Yagnik caught behind for six. Rahul Shukla was out trying to slog Pollard off the first delivery caught at square-leg by Smith. Faulkner was out off the second ball hoodwinked by the slower ball caught by Smith before Mumbai Indians jumped in joy. Earlier, Rohit Sharma (33 from 14 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (37 off 14 balls) cameos powered Mumbai to 202 for 6. Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 202 for 6 in 20 overs (Dwayne Smith 44, Glenn Maxwell 37, Rohit Sharma 33; Pravin Tambe 2 for 19) beat Rajasthan Royals 169 in 18.4 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 65, Sanju Samson 60; Harbhajan Singh 4 for 32, Kieron Pollard 3 for 31) by 33 runs. — Agencies
