James Franklin pulls off a heist

Kolkata Knight Riders had their Champions League debut all but booked when they began the last over with 21 to defend. Three edged boundaries off L Balaji and two missed yorkers later, James Franklin and Ambati Rayudu had seen Mumbai Indians to a highly unlikely win, breaking their losing streak of three. The win set up a repeat clash between the two teams in the Eliminator, an equivalent of a quarter-final.

Mumbai needed to finish the chase off in 5.1 overs to make it to the top two, but by beating Kolkata they could have made sure psychological advantage in their eliminator. For the best part of their 19 overs of batting, Mumbai scarcely looked like a team that could do so. Iqbal Abdulla snared T Suman in the second over, the pinch-hitter Harbhajan Singh managed 30 off 29, and Rajat Bhatia's leg-rollers broke the batting order's back with thee wickets in three overs.

At 96 for 4 in the 13th over, it seemed too much was left for Kieron Pollard and Franklin. Pollard lived up to that expectation, but Franklin kept the fight up mostly with well-place couples. A six and a four in between meant Mumbai were not completely out of it even when Balaji ripped Pollard's leg stump out with 40 required off 15.

L Balaji went for a wide yorker first ball of the final over, and a thick edge off the low full toss went between the keeper and the short third man. A slower bouncer followed, and the tope edge cleared the keeper again. Thirteen off four now looked so much more gettable.

Balaji went back to the wide-yorker plan, and Franklin smacked the next low full toss past extra cover for four. Under pressure and in the face of some ill luck, Balaji was just not landing them right. The next ball was a low, wide full toss again, and another thick edge beat third man to make it five of two. The next low full toss found extra cover, and brought Kolkata some relief. However, just then Balaji chose to bowl the worst delivery of the over - a high full toss on the pads - and Rayudu helped himself to his second, and decisive, six.

It was fitting that when Kolkata batted, the man who minimised the damage with the wickets of Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan was none other than Franklin.