Heartbreaks are bad enough, but this one’s hit us just when we thought we had it in our grasp. From an impossible-looking situation, we were right back in the boss chair. Alas. It wasn’t to be. MI Emirates fell short, by one run. 

MI Emirates needed 16 to win off the final over with just two wickets in hand. It soon boiled down to 12 off three. Rashid Khan was on strike. 

19.4: A slower short ball. Rashid swiveled and pulled way over mid-wicket for a SIX

19.5: A high full toss. Rashid swings, gets an under-edge and the keeper misfields. FOUR

19.6: 2 off 1 now. MIE could smell the two points. But Khuzaima Tanveen bowls a slower ball outside off. Rashid had already backed away. He swings, misses, tries to sneak in a bye, but the keeper nails a direct hit catching Allah Ghazanfar short. It wasn’t to be .. 

Excellent defensive bowling to keep the Vipers to 158

MI Emirates’ bowlers had the Desert Vipers in a fix in the middle overs, just not allowing them to get away. Fakhar Zaman got a 31-ball 35, Max Holden had to retire out for a 37-ball 42, and in the end, the strategy to hold Rashid Khan back until the end paid off big time. 

The Pollard-Dhillon impetus 

Although Tom Banton and Muhammad Waseem stitched together a 42-run stand for the second wicket, and then Nicholas Pooran and Banton got a 42-run stand for the third wicket, it was the 13-ball 23 from captain Polly, along with a seven-ball blitz of 17 from Tajinder Dhillon that got the MI Emirates back in the game firmly. Sadly, wickets kept tumbling, and we fell just short. Just!