Lucky Manish Pandey survives an edge in the noisy Eden Gardens

Though Mumbai Indians have already sealed a spot in the playoffs and are rather assured a top two finish fought it out fiercely against Kolkata Knight Riders who had to win their last league game to reserve a place. The Eden Gardens was full of beaming KKR fans – more than 61,000 of them, the enthusiastic fans were not only backing the home team but also made it tougher for the opposition.

It went in Kolkata’s favour when Manish Pandey edged a Mitchell Johnson delivery during the chase but the umpire failed to hear it. It was not only S Ravi but the bowler Johnson also didn’t go up with an appeal. The only man who really appealed for the catch was wicketkeeper Ambati Rayudu. He was certain there was an edge and he had caught it.

Crowd saves Pandey

Pandey attempted to slash the outside off stump ball towards third-man but all he managed was an under edge but for his benefit, there was no real deflection on the path of the ball. Skipper Rohit Sharma was agitated by the call and had a long discussion with Ravi about it, probably the longest he has ever talked to an umpire but certainly registered his displeasure.

UltraEdge replays confirmed that Rayudu and the Mumbai fielders who went up for the appeal were indeed correct as there was a substantial spike as the ball passed the bat. Pandey got a life while he was batting on 22 from 20 balls and that could prove to be a game-changing point as KKR are well on course to chase the 174-run target MI set them.

He was eventually dismissed for 33 from 33 balls while Kolkata still needed 25 runs to win from 17 balls.

Earlier today Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner also had a push of luck as he was given not out in a caught behind appeal by Ankit Soni. Warner had also edged it, he survived and took his team home and into the playoffs as well.