Ambati Rayudu's last-ball six gave Mumbai Indians a five wicket victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders in a tense finish at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Earlier, Jacques Kallis stood tall with a brilliant half-century as KKR overcame early hiccups to post a challenging 175 runs for seven wickets.
Put into bat, the Knight Riders had a cautious losing two wickets early with the scoreboard reading 22 but Kallis displayed a cool head and guided the home team innings with a a 42-ball 59.
Together with Manoj Tiwary (35 off 22) and Yusuf Pathan, Kallis shared 47 and 57 runs for the third and fourth wickets respectively to set the platform for the big score.
The burly South African entertained a sell-out Eden crowd with four boundaries and three sixes.
Towards the end, Ryab ten Doeschate (18 off 12) and Rajat Bhatia (11 not out off 6) played good hands to take Knight Riders past the 170-run mark.
For Mumbai Indians, young right-arm pacer Abu Nechim Ahmed and Kiwi James Franklin took two wickets each, giving away 32 and 35 runs respectively.
The Knight Riders also lost three of their batsmen (Shreevats Goswami, Tiwary and Rajat Bhatia) to run outs.
Lasith Malinga returned wicketless but the Sri Lankan pacer was impressive, conceding just 23 from his quota of four overs.
But Mumbai's back up bowlers, Keiron Pollard and debutant Ray Price were expensive as they gave away more than 11 runs an over to help the Knight Riders cause.
Facing Malinga for the first time ever, Goswami had some anxious moments as the Knight Riders made a cautious approach to their innings.
After surviving a couple of fiery deliveries from Malinga, Goswami (1 off 3 balls) ran himself out following a mix up with Kallis.
At the other end, Kallis looked unruffled as he attacked Malinga in the same over, picking up the ball over extra cover for a boundary in the last ball.
Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir quickly got himself in the groove with a six of Abu Nechim.
But Gambhir (8) perished in the very next ball when he missed Abu Nechim's line completely to see his off-stump shattered as the Knight Riders looked in some trouble, losing two wickets inside the first four overs.
The Knight Riders, however, maintained a healthy run-rate and Kallis stood tall to take their cause forward as they scored 46 runs for the loss of two wickets at the end of the powerplay.
In-form Tiwary played another fluent innings as the stylish Bengal skipper stitched a crucial third wicket partnership with the experienced South African.
The duo added 45 runs from 33 balls before Tiwary got himself out with another suicidial run-out. He hit five boundaries and one six during his stay.
After the fall of Tiwary, Kallis got fine support from big-hitting Pathan, who looked at his belligerent best taking the attack on Mumbai Indians camp.
In the very third ball he faced, Pathan smote left-arm spinner Price for a six over square leg and Kallis followed with a boundary as the veteran Zimbabwean conceded 13 runs of his first over.
Continuing with his blitzkrieg, Pathan dispatched Pollard for two back-to-back boundaries, while Kallis added another as the West Indian conceded 15 runs to put the Knight Riders on course for a challenging total.
Pathan and Kallis took the Knight Riders to 124 in the 16th over before the former got out after a quickfire innings.
Kallis soon exploded with three sixes, two of them in succession, as he completed his half-century in style.
The jam-packed Eden crowd numbering more than 65000 got their full worth of money with all the Knight Riders batsmen coming good.
